When We Were Lost
by AngeloftheMorning1978
Summary: Fan request. Many of my readers were just not ready to say goodby to WW2 Arthur. So this is the second part of "Don't lose yourself" Only it's not a dream. Please enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

** A lot of my readers were not ready to let 1940's Arthur go. I must admit, I can't let him go either. Damn you Arthur for being so awesome! **

** So I'm putting this together. In this story, there is no dream. Everything is real and it picks up right after Arthur takes Ariadne to the airport after their wedding night. **

When We Were Lost

1.

~ Ariadne watched her husband from her seat on the military transport plane. She knew she was lucky to even be able to evacuate out of Europe right now. The war was still raging onward and it was hard for anyone to escape the horrors of it.

Her broken leg still hurt and Arthur had made sure she had taken her pain medication before she boarded the plane that would take her from Paris to London, and then to New York. Their rapid nuptials and solitary wedding night would have to be enough to last till the end of the war.

~ "You have everything? Your medicine? Your clothes? Make sure you don't leave anything behind." He said as they waited for the plane to finish prepping. The handsome Army Major hiding his eyes form her. She knew if their eyes met, he might not be able to let her go.

"Yes, I have everything." She said numbly and gave an involuntary shudder.

"Are you cold?" He asked rubbing his war callused hands over her bare arms. Trying to warm her.

"No, I'm not cold." She said shaking like a leaf.

"It's only for a few more months. A few more months at best." he promised. "I have intelligence reports that the Russians are gaining ground and with our taking Paris back..." He sighed and looked at the injured men waiting to leave Paris for London.

His small bride looked out of place with them. Even with her leg heavily encased in a plaster cast.

"I could always stay. I could stay here in Paris." She said weakly. Her slight fingers running over the harsh fabric of his uniform. Finally straitening his medals. Finding something to do instead of leaving him.

"No." He said sharply. "I want you safe. We don't know what's going to happen now that Hitler and his thugs are so desperate." He said firmly.

She nodded and tried not to cry. Tried to remember that she was soldier's wife now. An officer's wife. She had to be strong.

He kissed her forehead and she could not hold back her tears.

"It's only a few months. Just a few months and I'll be home." He promised.

~ The flight to London was not easy. Although she was injured, and accounted for as one of the evacuating masses, she couldn't help but attend to the more seriously wounded. She had gotten better at hobbling around with her broken leg. The seating making it easier for her to hold onto something as she helped an overworked nurse with her patients.

The work felt good to her. It helped to keep her mind off of what Arthur was doing.

~ Lt. Colonel Cobb scowled down at a map and leaned into the phone.

"Confirm the order?" He asked in disbelief. A static voice barked back at him and he nodded.

"Sir, I just don't think my men are ready for another advancement. The last one was barely a week ago and we took casualties." Colonel Cobb said.

The static barking came back and Cobb sighed.

"Yes, sir." He said.

~ Arthur drove his solitary jeep back to the barracks. He wanted to be alone. Wanted no comfort from his friends or comrades in arms. He almost made it into the barracks without notice when Cobb spotted him.

"Major?" Cobb said catching up to him. Arthur stopped and saluted the Lieutenant Colonel.  
>"Congratulations on the promotion, Sir." Arthur told him.<p>

Cobb nodded.

"On yours as well. War time had no shortage of promotions if your lucky enough to survive it." The Colonel said. "I take it you just saw your wife off?" he asked.

"Yes, put her on the plane myself. If I didn't make her get on that plane she would most likely be back on the front. Cast and all." Arthur said wryly.

"Come and have a drink with me." Cobb said. "Not everyday we say goodbye to our wives."

"I never drink, Sir." Arthur said stiffly.

"Tonight you do, Major." Cobb said pulling rank. "We just got new orders. We advance to Berlin."

~ "To wives and lovers." Lieutenant Eames said raising his shot glass. "May they never meet." He added to a round of laughter. Arthur couldn't help but smile at that. His head happily sedated and tipsy from his fourth shot of whiskey. He wasn't a drinker and Lieutenant Eames was the first to notice that he "wasn't able" for it.

"Why so quick to go to Berlin?" Arthur asked looking at his hands. His drink kicking in.

"Patton's orders." Cobb said making a face as he downed his own shot. Lieutenant Eames blowing cigarette smoke in the crowded pub. "The Nazis are retreating, we have to advance. Their logistics are breaking down. We expect to break them by January. You may be home to your wife before Valentine's day."

"That would be nice." Arthur said numbly. He wanted Ariadne. She had only been gone a few hours but he missed her already. Just knowing she wasn't in Paris anymore made the city seem empty for him. Knowing that he would not see her for a few months, was painful.

"Arthur?" Cobb said shaking the Major's shoulders.  
>"I'm alright." Arthur said shaking his head.<br>"I know your hurting right now. I said goodbye to my own wife and two young children over two years ago." Cobb said. "I want more then anything to go back to them." He confessed. "But we have a job to do and we can't go home until we do it. We can't have Hitler coming to the home front, Solider."

"Right you are." Eames said raising another glass. The Lieutenant could drink them all under the table. "Our ladies back home are worth it." He added.

~ Ariadne finally rested at the London hospital in the nurses quarters. There were not many women patients in the hospital and she felt more at ease among the other nurses. She had assisted the nurse on the plane ride over and once the Matron at the hospital found out she was a Red Cross nurse with battle field experience, she quickly put her to work.

"We have so many wounded, we can't treat you special just because of a broken leg." The older woman said crisply. All the nurses were dressed in pristine white caps and aprons. Putting Ariadne's war weary uniform to shame.

"Yes, Matron." Ariadne said.

She gladly sat in a wheelchair and efficiently changed dressings all day.

"Things must not be going well, if our _nurses_ are in wheelchairs." One of the wounded men said.

Ariadne had to smile and neatly folded down his dressing.

"I hear the war will be over very soon. I was just in Paris and our boys are making ground every day." She told him.

"Wish I could be there. I was stupid enough to get wounded by a land mine. They should have let me die." The young man, barely 25, said holding back tears.

"Shh. No one would have let you die solider." She said soothingly.  
>"I have myself a young wife. Just as pretty as you. She won't want me now." The wounded young man said. Ariadne looked over the battle ridden body of her patient.<p>

"Your wife loves you." Was all she said.

"She can't love me like this." He cried out. His legs had been blown off by the mine, and later, ravaged by infection. His right hand also had been disfigured by the blast. "How can I be a man with her like this?" He said angrily. "She'd be better off burying me." He cried.

"No wife want's to bury her husband." Ariadne said smoothing the soldier's hair as he cried.

~ _Dear Arthur,_

_ I know we just left each other, but I feel some sense of comfort writing to you just now. I've made it to London without incident. Things at the hospitals here are worse then when I left. So crowded as a most of the wounded are sent here. _

_ The Matron sent me to work when she found out I was a nurse. I know, I know. Your going to say I need to stay off my feet and rest, but you know me. I like the work. It keeps my mind off things. I think my plane will not be able to take me to America for some time and this keeps me busy and not worrying about you. _

_ I do worry about you. I attended a young man who was blown up by a land mine and my heart is breaking for him. I worry that you could be killed or captured or hurt in a horrible way. Returned to me broken and not the same man who danced with me on our wedding night. _

_ Promise me you will be careful. It's a direct request from your wife that you return to her safe and sound. That you honor your promise to come back to her, and live a boring life with her. _

_ All of my love,_

_ Ariadne_


	2. Chapter 2

2.

~ Later, in the dead of night, Ariadne was torn from her dreams by a loud gunshot. She had been given a small cot to sleep on beside the nurses station. There were no beds left and she was too tired to care where she slept. She propped her compact, with Arthur's gallant photo tucked inside, on her bag and fell asleep looking at him. Imagining he was with her.

When the gun went off, the other patients were shouting and screaming for help. A tall gangly nurse who maned the nurses station at night screamed, and Ariadne managed to clumsily pull herself out of bed. She was half afraid some Nazi had invaded the hospital and had started shooting at everyone.

"Oh my!" Cried the gangly night nurse as more shouting came from downstairs. Others in the hospital had no doubt heard the gun shot and were coming.

Ariadne pulled her sweater over her night dress and bravely hobbled among the crowded rows of beds. Clutching each bed as she saw what was causing their distress. The men around her were pointing to one bed she had spent a great deal of time at.

The young man, the one who had half his body blown away by a land mine was dead. His head laying open like a melon. His service pistol in his hand. Blood and brain matter was everywhere.

"He was crying all night, Missus." One of the wounded said. "Told him to shut up. Told him this war has hurt all of us." The man looked on the verge of tears. "I didn't think he would do it, Ma'am." He cried.

"He shot himself." Another solider cried. The men around her becoming like frightened children as they looked to her to be strong.

"What's going on?" The Matron demanded coming into the ward with her nurses cap and a thick robe over her night dress.

"Nurse! Cover yourself at once!" She barked at Ariadne. Looking shocked over her wearing nothing but a sweater over her night clothes.

Ariadne sighed and pointed to the blood stained body that was once a young man.

"We have a bed free, Matron." She said turning numbly to hobble back to her cot.

~ Arthur swore to never drink again. Lieutenant Eames had told him the drink was the best way to forget his wife for the time being. But Arthur didn't want to forget Ariadne. He wanted the wound of her absence to fester and hurt.

He looked over the two pictures he had of her. The casual shot of them from a local who had charged him five dollars. Worth every penny as she looked so lovely. Captured forever as his sweetheart. The other was from their wedding. His bride in his arms as she balanced unsteady on her broken leg.

He had told her to keep the rest of their wedding pictures. Explaining that he would be home so soon anyway, that he would barely have time to miss her. That he only needed her pictures to show her off to the other men.

He tucked his precious photographs into a silver cigaret case for safe keeping. It had belonged to his father who had carried it during the great war. Arthur quit smoking after the rationing, but he had saved a few cigarettes that he had intended to use once the war was over.

"I know your glad to be officers right now, Sirs." Said an enlisted man as he drove the jeep over the rugged terrain. "Rest of us had to march all over here this morning." Cobb and Arthur said nothing as they approached the tents at the front.

"Keep your weapons at the ready." Arthur mumbled to Cobb as they looked over the battle torn camp. "We can't be sure this area is secure."

Cobb nodded and took the Major's advice to hide his rank. To an outsider, the two of them appeared liked ordinary soldiers. Their men were all under orders not to salute them in case of snipers.

For Arthur, this was easy. He was naturally distrustful of his surroundings and that made it easier for him in war time. Patton had been insistent that the 3rd march forward into the heart of Germany and forward they advanced.

The Major was quick to duck into a trench to find his old friend Dax.

"Captain." Arthur said gravely as Dax handed him binoculars to peer out of the trench with.

"Good to see you ladies made it to the ball." Dax teased. Arthur found himself smiling at that. He always enjoyed being around Dax. A man who had been with him almost his entire tour of duty. Who followed orders and never questioned them. Who had been his best man at his wedding.

"Hows the old ball and chain?" Dax asked popping a cigarette in his mouth.

"She'll be better once we take this forest." Arthur said peering at the movement behind the trees. "I can assume this field if mined?" He asked.

"You bet you ass it is." Dax said as Cobb came to crouch next to them. "I already lost a man to one of the little bastards this morning. Dead before he even knew he stepped on the damn thing. Could have been worse. At least he didn't suffer."

"We have to wait for a team to come and disarm them." Cobb said logically.

"That will take a few days." Dax added.

"Giving the enemy enough time to get away." Arthur grumbled. "Who do we think is behind the tree line?"

"Not an army. Not by any stretch of the word. It looks like a rag tag band of men who are just trying to get the hell out before the Allies roll in. Can't say I blame them." Dax said casually.

"Were under orders to take this sector." Arthur said bitterly. "How many grenades do you have?"

"Sir?" Dax said his cigarette hanging loosely from his lip. The match he was about to light it with burning low as he stared at the Major in surprise.

"It could take days to get a team out here to disarm those mines and we can lose a lot of men in the process. They have the cover of the trees, and the high ground." Arthur explained. "We need to push forward and flush them out."

"Few grenades are not going to make them surrender." Cobb said.  
>"Where's our ordinance, Captain?" Arthur asked. Dax sighed and nodded to one of his enlisted men.<p>

"Give the Major what he wants." He told him. "Sir, I assume was need to beat a temporary retreat?"

"Yes, but do it quietly. Keep your fires burning. And the trucks here. We don't want them to think were actually leaving. They might get suspicious.

~ "Sir, this is crazy." The skittish Corporal said fidgeting as Arthur laced a string of explosives together. Cobb and Dax had quickly evacuated the platoon away from the front lines. Their sudden flight had been swift and silent, leaving only the Major and a skinny Corporal behind. Radios were left blaring and cook fires were left burning. It was eerie to be in the trench at the moment. Like the two men were ghosts, forgotten by the living.

"Relax." Arthur fumed. Annoyed at the young man. "I know what I'm doing."

"You've done this before?" The young man asked.

"No." Arthur said casually. "Now, you know what to do, right? Throw the rope out and pull the red line?" He said roughly handing the skinny Corporal the explosives. They were tied together like Christmas lights.

"Sir, this is crazy." The young man said again.

"I agree." Arthur told him. "You wait for my order and then pull the red string. You cover yourself good because there is going to be an explosion you won't ever forget." Arthur warned.

The young man was shaking.

"Hey!" Arthur barked. "Look at me." The young man looked at the Major. "This will work. You'll be fine." He said.

~ The two men didn't waste anymore time. The Corporal following Arthur's orders to the letter. In the silence of the empty trenches and camp, came a horrific explosion as the mines were all blown up at once and heavy shrapnel rained down on the Allied camp as well as the men hiding in the forest.

Arthur had covered himself fairly well under the trench but he felt the ground jump with the force of the explosion. He could only pray the skinny Corporal had made it. The shrapnel had fallen into the trenches and the Major was thankful nothing to heavy or sharp hit him.

The blast did however, make his ears ring and deafened him to everything else.

The Major never heard Dax and Cobb call for the advancement once the mine field was blown, but he saw the Army tank run over the ruined mine field and fearlessly blast the tree line.

Cobb was pulling the Major to his feet as Arthur watched the broken band of Nazis surrender. Their bodies bloodied by the mine blast and later the cannon fire.

"Stand down!" Dax and Cobb shouted as some of the enlisted men started to beat the wounded prisoners. "Were under orders to take them alive!" Dax pulled off a privet who had knock a prisoner in the face with his riffle.

Arthur pulled out his silver cigarette case and opened it. He looked at his pretty wife and smiled. He didn't take part in the victory. His normally immaculate clothing was full of dirt from the blast and his hearing was still fuzzy. He decided to smoke one of his cigarettes and casually sat on the hood of a jeep. He was smoking and watching around forty prisoners being rounded up like cattle and a razor wire fence put around them. No tent for the prisoners and next to no medical care for the wounds the blast and gun fire had caused.

"Tree line is secure, Sir." Dax said with a grin. "Good to see married life hasn't stumped your sense of fun." He laughed.

Arthur only nodded and saw the skinny Corporal coming to sit next to him. The Major offered him one of his cigarettes and the two of them smoked in silence for a while.

"Told you it would work." Arthur said finally.

"What?" The young man shouted.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

~ _Ariadne,_

_ I wish I could tell you what is happening to us right now. Rest assured, I am staying safe and not taking any risks. The officers stay well away from the action and Cobb, Dax and I have been spending most night smoking, gambling and giving orders. _

_ I'm glad your keeping busy. It will make the time go by faster. I'll be so glad when your in New York. I'll sleep better knowing your safe. Even if your far away. _

_ Rest your leg sweetheart, I want to take you dancing when I come home._

_ Arthur_

~ Ariadne closed the weather beaten letter she had finally gotten from her husband. It had been two weeks since she had seen him at the airport in Paris. Her Major looking painfully handsome in the uniform they had wed in. His medals hanging impressively on his chest as he had eyes only for her.

Her own eyes flickered to the compact. His picture safely tucked inside. Her husband looking back at her. His handsome face marred only by the serious expression she secretly liked. He never looked serious or angry when he was with her. When they were alone, his face softened and his brow never pulled down to a scowl.

She smiled as she tried to make her mind shut off and go to sleep. Her bed-mate snored too loudly.

~ The Matron had asked if she would stay on a few more weeks at the hospital. She would be paid a salary and she could even rent an apartment.

"There are plenty of empty flats in London right now. Because of the war." She had explained. "You can take the bus to the hospital."

"With this?" Ariadne laughed looking down at her leg. Still causing her to limp as she redressed the wounded. A task that allowed her to sit for most of the day.  
>"Well, we can always put you in the nurses quarters." The Matron said. "Although that is up a flight of stairs."<p>

"I'm fine on my little cot." Ariadne assured the Matron.  
>"It's <em>not <em>suitable for a young woman to be sleeping in a ward full of men. Even if she is sleeping behind the nurses station." The Matron said clutching her high collar and flushing red.

"Your worried they will rape me?" Ariadne asked remembering that the vast majority of her patients could barely get out of bed.

"No, I never said that." The Matron said shakily.

"Then you worry I might be staying at the ward so I can '_visit_' one or more of them?" Ariadne asked innocently. Surely the Matron would know when she was being teased.

"I certainly hope that is not the case!" The Matron barked. Apparently, the head nurse was not used to being teased. The Matron sighed.  
>"Until you leave for the states to be with your husband's family, you will stay with me in my quarters. I can guard you dignity for your husband's sake." the Matron said briskly.<p>

"I'm sure my husband would thank you." Ariadne said with a repressed smile.  
>"Not at all." The Matron said stiffly.<p>

~ Now Ariadne was trapped in a tiny bed with the tall, boney Matron. Her loud snoring and sharp elbows making Ariadne wish for her little cot. She pulled out her letter from Arthur again and tired to read between the lines.

She knew he was lying to her about the dangers he was facing. She could do nothing about her fears other then get up and go to work. Her duties at the hospital kept her so busy, she didn't have time to worry.

The Matron gave a loud snore and Ariadne sighed. How she longed for the comfortable bed with her new husband on their wedding night. Instead, she was trapped between a cold wall and the boney Matron. Trying to sleep on her lumpy, virginal bed.

~ Arthur couldn't help but laugh. His wife's letter, while he was sure was written in distress, struck him as funny.  
>"What's the joke?" Dax asked as he, Cobb and Arthur were about to go sleep in the officer's barracks.<p>

They had pushed the line forty miles in three days. Flushing out many more entrenched enemy soldiers who surrendered at the sight of the Americans in their large tanks.

"My wife is still working at the hospital in London." Arthur chuckled. "The head nurse there is '_protecting her dignity_' by making her stay in her room. Seems they have to share a bed and the old bat snores." Arthur laughed a healthy laugh at his wife's comical hardship.

"You know, I always wondered about those kinds of women." Dax said in an amused little voice. "I mean, they decided not to marry and to work for a living. What kind of woman decides not to have a husband?"

"Nuns?" Cobb offered.  
>"It's not natural for a woman to not want a man." Dax said.<p>

"Some women are afraid of men." Cobb said with a soft smile.

"What? You mean the horrors of the marriage bed?" Dax said being blunt. "Nothing to be afraid of. Most women I know, like it."

Arthur said nothing. His mind going back to his wedding night with his maiden bride.

"So, whats your point?" Cobb asked.

"So, I think women who never marry must be hiding something. Like maybe they don't like men for a good reason." Dax offered.

"Afraid of being with a man?" Arthur asked re-reading his wife's letter. His heart aching to hold her again. To share a bed with her.

"I think women like that secretly love other women." Dax explained in a whisper. "I've heard about it. They have relations with other women like men and women have relations."

"How would that even work?" Cobb asked with a laugh.

"Dax, your crazy." Arthur scolded turning down the lantern.

"Alright, Arthur." Dax said with a shrug. "Better tell your wife to watch out. Or the Matron might try and make a move on her."

~ Ariadne had been on London for over a month now. The work keeping her distracted, but the faces of the wounded haunted her. She kept looking for her husband's face in each new batch of wounded. She had started to cry at night and Ester, the Matron, said that would not do.

"I've made arrangements for your trip to your husband's family. I spoke with his sister, Beth, and she is anxious to meet you and has prepared accommodations for your stay." Ester said putting on her nurses cap. The brisk efficient nature of the Matron coming out.

"I thought you needed me here." Ariadne said walking much better now with the help of a cane.

"We will be fine." Ester said. "You need to be home with your husband's family."

~ The next morning, Ester gave Ariadne a stiff hug which she took to be a sign of friendship, and gave her her pay from the hospital. It was a decent sum. She had no clue what to use it on. Her work had been without pay before, but all her basic needs were met. She wondered now what to do with money.

~ The trip over the ocean was uneventful. She had written Arthur a brief letter telling him her plane was finally able to leave London. Hopefully, it would make him happy to know she was safe with his mother and sister.

~ "Goodness!" Exclaimed a tall, willowy thin young woman that could only be Arthur's sister. "I forgot you were injured." She said in a confident, high born accent.

Ariadne took in her new sister-in-law. She was immaculately dressed. Her outfit was the height of style and she wore expensive looking jewelery that had to be real.

'_What have I gotten myself into?_' Ariadne wondered as Arthur's sister finally smiled.

"I'm so glad you've made it home. I'm Elizabeth. Everyone calls me Beth." She said. Her lovely face breaking into a smile. Compared to this tall, slim creature, Ariadne felt frumpy. The trip across the sea had been a long one, and her brown dress was wrinkled and her hair a mess. Beth looked pristine in dress and hair. Just like her brother.

"Is this all the luggage you have?" Beth questioned looking at Ariadne's small bag that held her blue dress and her nurses uniform. She had been allowed very few luxuries with her work.

"Yes, I was a Red Cross nurse." She explained feeling weary.

"Yes, Arthur told me. Let's go home so you can have a nice bath and nap before dinner." Beth said gently as the two women walked to a fine car with a driver waiting for them. "Mother is anxious to finally met you."


	4. Chapter 4

4.

~ Like her brother, Beth was blessed with good manners and kept the conversation polite and general.

'How did you like Paris? Were the people pleasant? Was the trip to New York pleasant? Was the weather pleasant?'

Ariadne had to smile and relax some as she was grateful Beth didn't bombard her with questions about the rapid courtship and wedding between herself and Arthur. She was feeling tired and ready for a hot bath and sleep as the car drove the two women out of the city.

"You don't... I thought you lived in New York?" Ariadne asked as the city melted away into country side.  
>"We live up state, Dear." Beth said casually. Ariadne looked out at the rolling hills and watched the homes turn very elegant. Sitting on large plots of land and well tended gardens. Finally, they arrived at a stunning brick home with a long gated drive.<p>

"You live _here_?" Ariadne gasped. Her parent's small home in Canada would fit several times in this home. And her parents had five daughters.

"Be it ever so humble." Beth said. "Father had this built for Mother, as a wedding present."

~ Beth brought her in the back way up the servant's stairs.

"You must be tired after your long trip." She whispered. "There is no one here but myself and Mother theses days. Father died last year."

"Oh! Arthur never told me." Ariadne said as Beth helped her to climb the stairs with her cast and cane.

"Yes, because he doesn't know." Beth said sadly. "Father was distressed after Danial was lost at Pearl." Beth explained. "He became quite ill. We hoped he would recover, but with the loss of Jacob over the Pacific, and with Arthur in Europe." She whispered.

"I'm so sorry." Ariadne said.  
>"Yes, were very grateful Arthur is still alive. I thought it best to wait until he was home to tell him the news about father. It would only distress him." Beth said showing her to a small bedroom. "Is Arthur... I mean, was he well the last you saw him?" Beth asked timidly.<p>

"Very well." Ariadne assured her. "He had just been promoted and received the Distinguished Service Cross for saving over 300 POWs."

"Really?" Beth exclaimed her eyes lighting up.

Ariadne sat down on her bed and pulled out her compact. She carefully unfolded the newspaper clipping and showed it to Beth.

"My French is so rusty." Beth said as the two women looked over the article. Ariadne showed her the few wedding photos of her and her husband. Arthur looking heroic and happy in his dress uniform. His medals weighing him down.

"I don't think I've ever seen my brother so happy." Beth said with a sad smile. Ariadne could tell the fine comportment of Arthur's sister was cracking a little.

"It must have been a shock to hear he was getting married." Ariadne said with a laugh.

"That's putting it mildly." Beth said with a laugh. "Arthur never does things like this. Sensible to the last. You must really be something special."

~ Ariadne sleep for hours. She had not realized how much the trip had taken out of her. When she woke up, it was dark outside.

"I do not care if she is _civil_!" A woman's voice came from downstairs as Ariadne quietly made her way down the servant's stairs to the ground floor. "How could Arthur do such a thing to me?" Cried the woman.

"Mother! Calm down!" Beth was saying. "You know my brother would not rush into such a situation lightly."

"He is _married_ Elizabeth! Married! To a common whore he met in France! A woman with no breeding and no education!" The lady was crying.

Ariadne peeked unseeing into the parlor. Beth was sitting reserved and lady like on an expensive couch. A handsome, tall woman was pacing about the room. She had Arthur's height and formidable stride. She had to be his mother.

"Ariadne is not a whore, Mother." Beth said calmly. "Men don't _marry_ whores and send them to their family. A whore is someone who they pay, use and then leave."

"Elizabeth! Where is your composure? Discussing women who sell themselves, as if you know of such things!" The mother cried.  
>"You brought up whores first, Mother." Beth said with Arthur's smile. "Anyhow, Ariadne is a lovely girl. She worked as a nurse in London and Paris. She was wounded helping POWs when an air raid hit. She obviously has a good heart."<p>

"A _nurse_!" The other exclaimed. "Don't think I don't know what that means!"

"Enlighten me, Mother." Beth said picking up some embroidery and stitching. Barely giving the older woman a glance.

"Nurses only become nurses to seduce men. They are one step above prostitutes!" The lady of house exclaimed. "They are filled with lust and climb on top of the poor wounded men, many of whom are married, and are _carnal_ with them!"

"Hum. I wonder if it's to late to become a nurse." Beth said thoughtfully.

"Elizabeth!" The mother cried.

Ariadne had heard enough. She coughed loudly and let it be known she was in the room.

"Oh, Ariadne." Beth said with a warm smile. "Did you sleep well? I was just about to wake you for dinner."

"Yes, I slept very well." Ariadne said not glancing at Arthur's mother.

She looked around the beautifully decorated room. A grand fireplace mantel catching her interest. Large, professional, photographs were centered on it. Depicting the home's four children. The young men, all dressed in uniform. The first two with a black ribbon over the frames. Signifying they had died. The third was of Beth, looking fashionable and haughty. The last was Arthur.

He somehow looked much younger even though the portrait could not have been taken more then 4 years ago. His face was more innocent because he had not seen war yet.

"Ariadne, I would like you to meet my Mother, Lydia." Beth said standing up and waving at the formidable lady.

"Charming." Arthur's mother said coldly. "You may call me, Madam."

"The servant's call you _Madam_." Beth snapped. "Ariadne, please call her _Mother_ like I do. Don't worry, she doesn't like me to call her that either."

Arthur's mother huffed and looked over Ariadne as if she meant to buy her. She was wearing her only other dress. The blue one she had gotten married in and tried not to think about her lack of stockings and her worn out shoes. Her only jewelery was her wedding band and her locket. Compared to these richly clothed women, she looked worn and poor.

"Ariadne is it?" the Lady asked. "In the future, we _dress_ for dinner." She said curtly.

"Mother, let's not show our fangs just yet." Beth scolded lazily. "Let the new member of the pack decide if she likes us first."

~ Dinner was a cold affair. Lydia barely saying a word as Beth asked Ariadne intelligent and general questions about the war. Ariadne was used to the loud, friendly gossip of other nurses in the mess halls. Before that, the happy chatter of her sisters at a crowded dinner table.

"The family took a trip to Paris before the war broke out." Beth said fondly. "It was a lovely city. Arthur had just graduated high school and I was at Wellesley."

"A nice school." Ariadne said savoring the roast beef. _Beef!_ In war time! She hadn't seen real lean beef in years.

"Yes, they give a girl all the important skills for catching a husband and keeping him looking good to his peers." Beth huffed.

"And yet, you still failed miserably!" Lydia chided. "I can't tell you how many suitors I had arranged for her. Stupid, headstrong child!"

"Don't mind her." Beth said coolly. "She's shocked at the state of women theses days. How we can dress ourselves and vote and have careers and no husbands. It's one of the four horseman I'm sure."

"Elizabeth!" Lydia scolded sharply.  
>"I myself have a job." Beth said ignoring her mother completely and dropping her lady like manners. Her eyes twinkling. "I work at the '<em>New Yorker<em>' as a copy editor. It's not too hard but I like to meet all the people."

"Newspaper men!" Lydia scolded.

"Exactly." Beth said with a wink.

~ Ariadne was happy to go back to sleep. Arthur's relatives had exhausted her. Beth had promised to take her shopping in the morning for some nice clothes.

"It's the only way to keep mother happy. We can't have my brother's wife looking like a normal person." Beth laughed.

"I have a little money." Ariadne said. "We can go to the Woolworth."

Beth held back a horrified laugh.  
>"Oh no my darling sister." Beth said pityingly. "We don't shop there. We'll go to Bloomingdales for you things. I don't doubt you'll need new everything. And don't worry about the money, God knows we have plenty of it. Mother will allow the expense so long as you look like one of us."<p>

"That's very kind." Ariadne said blushing.

"Not at all." Beth said. "Now that were sisters, can I tell you something?"

"Of course." Ariadne said as the two women were alone in her room.

"I don't work as a copy editor. That's just for mother's benefit." Beth whispered. "I'm a writer for the New Yorker. I write, and I've been published for over two years now!"

"That's wonderful!" Ariadne said sincerely impressed. "Why would keep that from your mother?"

Beth looked puzzled.

"You did _meet_ my mother didn't you?" She asked.


	5. Chapter 5

5.

~ Arthur and his men met up with a British unit a few days before his wife had met his sister and mother. They were in a small town that had been used as a transport hub for victims of Hitler's war machine. The locals were afraid of the American and British convoys. All of them refusing to talk to them.

Evidence of the Nazi's crimes were in burnt down death camps and torn apart rail road cars.

"Trying to cover up what they did." Cobb said sadly looking at the large furnaces used to burn bodies.

Arthur's attention was diverted to the piles of shoes still in the train station.

"They made them take off their shoes." Arthur said numbly. "Why... why did they make them take off their shoes?"

"Major." Cobb said sternly. "Can't focus on that. We have prisoners to interrogate."

~ Ariadne was thrilled by New York. Beth seemed to know her way around and had her personal driver take the women on a tour before stopping at a very expensive store in the heart of Manhattan.

Ariadne pulled her thin sweater tighter as the late November air hit her.

"I think a good winter coat will be the first thing we get." Beth said as a shop girl rushed over to them. It seemed Beth was a regular and all the shop girls knew her and were more then happy to help Ariadne find new clothing.  
>"Um, Beth?" Ariadne said looking over the elegant selection of fashions. Each more lovely then the last. "These clothes..." She looked at her sister-in-law helplessly.<p>

"You don't like them? Your so petite, I've always wanted to be petite, you can wear such cute things." Beth said worriedly.

"No, their lovely. Really, they are. It's just... I um..." Ariadne floundered.  
>"I said don't worry about the cost." Beth said. "I know my brother. He would want us to take care of you. He would want you to have nice things to wear. Our family sets very high standards in fashion." She assured her. "We would rather go naked then dress poorly." She added with a smile.<p>

Ariadne had to laugh.  
>"No, I know Arthur would want you to do this for me. It's just that, I don't know how long I'll be able to... um wear these... these clothes." She said fearfully. Her eyes ducking away from Beth.<br>"Ariadne..." Beth gasped. "Your in a family way?" She said with a wide smile.

Ariadne looked sadly back at Beth.

"Oh my!" Beth exclaimed. "That's so wonderful!"

"Arthur and I... we were only together on our wedding night. Just that one time." Ariadne said shyly running a hand over the dark red dress Beth had picked out.

"One time is all it takes." Beth said with a smile. "How far along are you? Does Arthur know?"

"Almost two months now." Ariadne admitted. "Arthur doesn't know yet."

"You have to write him as soon as possible and tell him. He'll be so happy! Honeymoon babies are lucky." Beth said. Her eyes dancing with excitement.  
>"Your mother is going to think I trapped Arthur into marrying me." Ariadne said sadly.<br>"Don't worry about what that old dragon thinks. If she gives you any trouble I'll give her something to really worry about." Beth said.  
>"I don't know how Arthur will react to the news." Ariadne admitted hobbling on her broken leg. Leaning on the cane the Matron in London had given her. "I mean, we barely knew each other when we got married. Were still newlyweds."<p>

"He will be happy. I promise you." Beth whispered taking her hand.  
>"Men like the <em>idea<em> of children more then the reality of them." Ariadne said.

"Arthur isn't most men." Beth assured him. "Ariadne, this is really wonderful news. We have had so much loss in our family since the start of the war. I've lost my two brothers and my father. Everyday we worry over Arthur coming home. Now, this is a new chance for all of us. A chance to heal our family." Beth said near tears. "Arthur, will be so happy."

"You seem so sure." Ariadne said trying not to cry.  
>"Ariadne, when we were little, Nanny used to take us to the green grocers. Arthur's job was to get the eggs. It was the only job he was fit for because he took so damn long at it." Beth said.<p>

Ariadne smiled as her sister-in-law took her hand.

"He would pick up each egg and carefully examine it for cracks. He picked only the best for us. Me? I picked any old egg that was closest. I broke half of them if I carried them home. Not Arthur, Nanny trusted him, and him alone, to pick the eggs and carry them home. Now, if he is that careful with picking out eggs, imagine how careful he was when picking out a wife and future mother to his child?"

Ariadne couldn't help but hug her sister-in-law. Her story of Arthur as a young boy comforting her.

"Thank you, Beth." She whispered gratefully.  
>"Now." Beth said brushing back happy tears. "We need to go to the third floor and pick out baby things. My brother's legacy has to have the most beautiful nursery on the east coast. We can get you some maternity clothes first and after lunch, we can make an appointment with the best doctor in Manhattan."<p>

Ariadne was cheered by Beth's excitement. She was starting to think that maybe everything would be alright.

"We can go to Western Union and send Arthur a telegram. Give him something to fight for." Beth said happily.

"Can we wait a little while to tell your mother?" Ariadne asked leaning on her sister-in-law. "At least until we hear back from Arthur?"

"Of course." Beth said.

~ "Sir." The skinny Corporal said later that evening. "You have a telegram."

Arthur took the neatly sealed envelope from his Corporal and dismissed him.  
>"Well, look at Mr. Fancy! With his <em>telegram<em>!" Eames teased as he looked back at his hand of cards. The Americans had run into the British Lieutenant in the small village a few days ago and Eames had provided his friends with illegally procured drinks and cigarettes.

After days of grueling interrogations and reporting back to command about the brunt down death camps, Arthur was feeling depressed. Not even the sudden, cheery arrival of Eames, his friend from Paris, could make him feel better. The Major couldn't take his mind off the shoes left in a pile at the train station.

Men's shoes, ladies heels, children's sandals. Hundreds if not thousands had faced their deaths here in these camps. The wardens and guards of the camp had been ordered to torch the place before the Allies rolled in. They confessed they were just following orders when they gassed, shot and brutalized helpless men, women and children.

"What does it say?" Eames asked. "You being kicked out of the Army for being boring?" Eames asked rubbing two poker chips together as Cobb and Dax laughed.

Arthur sighed and reluctantly opened the telegram. Nothing but bad news arrived in a telegram. His family received news his brother had died at Pearl in a telegram, and when his other brother had died in the Pacific. Nothing good arrived in a telegram.

He said a silent prayer and opened it.

Arthur.

I am safe in New York with your family.

Your sister is wonderful.

Your mother says hello.

I miss you.

I hope you are well.

Found out recently I am expecting.

Baby is due in July.

Love. Ariadne.

Arthur had to re-read the last few lines again. _Baby?_ His mind swam at the impossible notion. Baby due in July? He and his wife were only together for one night. He was going to be a father?

"Well, what's the word?" Eames asked.

Arthur looked up. His eyes wide.

"What's wrong? What's happened?" Cobb asked worriedly.  
>"Ariadne's pregnant. Were going to have a baby." Arthur said in disbelief. His words suddenly making the thing real.<p>

Shouts of joy erupted out of the officer's tent as Dax, Eames and Cobb were shouting at all their men to celebrate the news that the Major had a pregnant wife back home.

Eames had "confiscated" a case of champagne from Paris and poured it liberally into the tin cups of the enlisted men as Arthur held tightly to the telegram with news of his baby.

"Congratulations, Sir!" His men shouted happily. Among all the death they had discovered in this haunted place, news of a baby was more welcomed then anything.

Ariadne.

Received your telegram.

So happy.

Going to stay up all night celebrating.

I needed this good news.

Want to come home to you.

Missing you.

Tell Mother and Beth take care of you.

Of both of you.

Arthur.

~ Ariadne and Beth only had to wait an hour before Arthur's response crackled over the wires. They had almost left when the gentleman stopped them.

"Here it comes." He said handing her the typed note.

Ariadne read and re-read her husbands response. A smile spreading over her face.  
>"See? I told you." Beth said with a smile.<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

6.

~ Arthur's sister and mother seemed untouched by the rationing of war. Ariadne had no idea, when she married him, that he came from old money. Lydia seemed comfortable with her maid, her cook and her driver. The family didn't even seem phased by the Great Depression.

Beth hadn't told her mother about Ariadne's pregnancy and instead, the two women would take secretive shopping trips to find cute baby things. Beth becoming more excited then Ariadne at the prospect of having a niece or nephew.

The doctor Beth had found was a pleasant, capable man who told Ariadne gently that, despite healing from a broken leg, she should count on being a new mother in summer. Ariadne slept peacefully in her guest room at night and enjoyed fresh foods and other luxuries that she hadn't had since the war started. Her one pain, was that Arthur was not there with her.

Ariadne worried that while she was warm and well fed, her husband might be cold and hungry. She had terrible thoughts of him sleeping in a cold ditch or worse, captured by the enemy. Beth told her to stop thinking about it. That such thoughts would be bad for the baby and create a sad child.

~ It was cold. Arthur had never remembered being this cold in his life. A wintery snow storm had stopped the advancement dead and the men were forced to settle in at a small village outside of Germany. Another few days and they would march into Hitler's heart.

The American and British forces had not wanted to separate. Instead, blazing a trail right though the worst of the desolation.

"From what I hear, the Red Army is closing in on Berlin as well. We may get to meet some Russians." Eames said as Arthur tried to warm his hands up enough to write back to Ariadne.

Her newest letter was about her and Beth shopping for the baby. He had no idea what his mother thought about the prospect of a grandchild and suspected his wife and sister hadn't told her.

He scratched her name on the fine white paper and tried to think of something to say to her.

Over the past few days he had seen horrible things. Bodies, piled like dirty, old socks in liberated death camps. He saw the naked bodies of skeletal men, women and children. All emaciated, all hairless.

In one rail station, the helpless victims were all executed while trying to flee from a cattle car train. Their bodies left to rot as delicate white snow fell on them.

Cobb had taken all of it especially hard.

"I left my wife back home." The Colonel said privately to Arthur after the Army had secured the camp. "She had just had my son, James. I left my daughter, Phillipa behind to." The Colonel suddenly looked much older as he was lost in his own thoughts.

"I can't seem to remember their faces anymore. I want to see their beautiful faces again." Cobb said as if in a trance.

"You will." Arthur said numbly. "Their safe and sound back home. Their safer there then anywhere else in the world right now."

"I know. I just... I want to go home. I have to get back home to my children. Their still so young. My boy, he would only be three now. He doesn't even know me. I miss my wife, I never should have left her." Cobb said as snow fell over the two men.

~ Arthur blinked. He couldn't write to his wife about what he was seeing here. Couldn't burden her with the images of so much death and destruction. All those shoes in a pile. Bodies left to rot in clumps till they didn't even look human anymore. So much life, thrown away.

He knew he had to lie. He had to lie, and make her believe the lie. Make her never question it.

_Ariadne,_

_ I don't think I'll miss the Army when I'm home with you and the baby again. I don't see myself missing the food, or the marching, or sleeping in tents. The only good thing about the Army was it did get a cute nurse in Paris. _

_ I miss you so much. If I had just one wish, I would wish I was back home with you. I wish I could be there with you as you prepare for our child to be born. _

_ I think the war will be over very soon. It feels like our enemy has nowhere left to run. It feels like those bullies are showing that they really are cowards. _

_ Kiss the little one for me and tell Beth and Mother that I am well. _

_ When you go to sleep tonight, wrap yourself up warm and tight and think of me. Wishing I could hold you. _

_ Arthur_

Arthur addressed the envelope and mailed it. He opened his cigarette case and looked at the sepia photo of Ariadne. Frozen forever on the Paris streets with him by her side. Her telegram about the baby tucked behind it.

~ A few days later, as Arthur and his men had made another advancement, an ambushed happened. He should have seen it coming. Should have suspected the desperate actions of the enemy would lead to this. Their victories had made him and his men complacent and careless.

A field they were marching over was too still. Too silent. Like a snow covered graveyard. Suddenly, their tank ran aground and almost tipped over. The tanks guns facing down to the ground when the attack happened. Arthur barely had enough time to realize a trap had been dug for the heavy tank to fall into before the tree line lit up with gun fire. Hard bullets cutting down the men around him. Puffs of red blood hitting the air as his men were practically sawed in half by machine gun fire.

The gun fire was hot and heavy as Arthur and Cobb ducked down into the trench with their tank. Their men firing back as the Major drew his side arm and he and Cobb shot back at the dark shapes in the trees. The tank protected them from the worst of the fire fight as Arthur called to his men to surrender.

"Sir?" The skinny Corporal shouted back. Fear written plainly on his face as a man next to him was shot in the neck and killed. His blood bright on the white snow.

"_We surrender!_" Arthur growled taking out the white lacy handkerchief Ariadne gave him when he first left her to go to battle. He pined it on the barrel of his riffle and waved the white make shift flag in the air.

He knew he had to do it. Cobb was wounded, Dax was dead and the field was carpeted with the blood and bodies of his men.

The Nazis stopped their fire at the Major's shouts of: "Stop! Wir Ergeben uns!"

"Sir, were just giving up?" The skinny Corporal said looking scared as the Nazis advanced out of the forest. The band of them holding weapons trained on Arthur's few remaining men. Cobb was gasping hard at the wound to his leg.

"They have us out maned and out gunned Corporal." Arthur said soberly. "They will kill us all if we don't."

~ Out of over 300 American and British troops that had been victim of the ambush, Arthur counted only 60 to have survived the fray. He surrendered his remaining men and their weapons to the enemy.

The Nazis were barking at them. Asking who the officers were. The trained response to all of them was to point to one of the dead. Never revealing that Arthur or Cobb were the only officers left now. The Colonel and Major dressed like enlisted men.

Arthur helped Cobb to stand and their captures shot and killed the most critically wounded.

"_Walk_, Cobb." Arthur said harshly as the Colonel leaned on the Major. "If they think your too badly hurt, they'll kill you." The Major searched the bloodied snow for Lieutenant Eames and didn't see him among the living or the dead.

'_Bastard had better make it out and get help._' He thought as the Nazis made the survivors march into the cold darkness. Arthur recognized the dead, staring eyes of Dax as they marched past the bodies of their brothers. The enemy leaving their comrades in the snow. The Major turned away. Not wanting to remember his friend this way. His now clouded eyes looking out from lifeless body.

~ An ocean away, Ariadne woke up from a nightmare.


	7. Chapter 7

7.

~ Ariadne felt her pulse racing. An animal like sense of panic fueling her body as she bolted out of bed. Her leg shooting a sharp pain at the sudden movement.

She had had a nightmare. A horrible dream of Arthur in snow. The snow turning blood red as her solider became lost.

~ "Ariadne, I'm sure it was just a bad dream." Her mother said when she called her parents house the next morning. She had told her parents about her sudden marriage by mail while in London and had only spoken with them a few times since arriving state side.

"No, Mom." Ariadne felt ready to cry. "I... I feel like something is really _wrong_." Ariadne said as she watched the sun rise.  
>"Darling, why don't you come home?" Her mother's kind voice came over the line. "No one can take care of you now better then your family. Your sister is here with us and her two children. Her husband is in Japan. We can look after you till your husband is home."<p>

"No, Arthur wants me with his family." Ariadne said. "I just feel like this dream was telling me Arthur is in trouble."

"Dreams are not real, Darling." her mother said softly. "They are just your fears coming out. You have a lot to be worried and afraid of right now. Your newly married with a baby on the way. Your husband is in Europe and you worry about him."

"Mom. Something is wrong." Ariadne said firmly.

~ Ariadne tried to push away the nightmare that was haunting her. Her heart was still jittery and she barely ate anything at lunch.

"What is wrong?" Lydia asked curtly. Her daughter-in-law's distress was a bother to her.

"I um... I'm just worried about Arthur." Ariadne said as the two of them ate lunch in the large, formal dinning room. Beth was in the city and that left Ariadne at home, alone with the dragon.

"I understand." Lydia said coldly.

"You do?" Ariadne questioned.

"Yes." She said. "Despite what you may think, I am not a monster. I married Arthur's father when I was 18 years old. He graduated from collage and came back to marry me. He was the only man I ever had regards for. When he went to fight in the Great War, I worried about him every night. I lost my older brother in that war and I was so afraid I would lose him to." Lydia said never losing her composure.

"I've lost sons to this war. My poor husband... he couldn't take the lose of our children." She finished looking thoughtful, but not sad. "I know what it is to worry and feel helpless. To not be able to help those you care about."

The nurse in Ariadne made her to reach out and take Lydia's hand. The lady of the house sat up straighter and glared daggers at her daughter-in-law. Ariadne pulled away sensing she had done something wrong.

"There is no need to become emotional." Lydia said sharply.

~ Arthur and his remaining men were taken by a series of battered trucks to an isolated make shift camp. Their captures yelling at them in German as they pulled the men out upon reaching the barracks.  
>"What are they saying?" Cobb asked as Arthur helped the Colonel inside a barrack where it would be a little warmer.<br>"Something about a exchanging us for immunity." Arthur growled as he lowered Cobb on the floor. "They think they can buy their freedom by sparing our lives."

"Well, maybe they shouldn't have killed so many of our people first." Cobb said clutching his wounded leg as the rest of their men huddled in the barracks. It's walls were not insulated to the cold and the enemy had taken all their weapons, and survival gear.  
>"Yeah, I really don't think they have a plan." Arthur said grimly as he tore open Cobb's pant leg and examined the gun shot wound.<p>

"Through and through. Afraid our medic was one of the ones killed during the attack." Arthur said wrapping the Colonel's wound. "We have to keep it clean and dry."

"Arthur." Cobb whispered. "You know they plan to kill us."

"We don't know that." Arthur said.  
>"Yes we do. We have seen evidence of what they plan to do all over Europe." Cobb whispered so the men wouldn't hear. "We have to get out."<br>"We are an immobile unit right now." Arthur said logically. "We have too many wounded to move and no transport and no idea where we are."

"Arthur." Cobb said sternly as the Major tightened the bandage. "We know what they will do. You remember what the POWs in Paris told us. If they find out your Jewish..."

Cobb didn't have to finish. Didn't have to say it. Arthur's blood had turned cold at the memory. The rescued American POWs in Paris had told them they were striped naked by the Nazis so they could see which of them was circumcised. Those who were, were immediately executed.

~ "This is where it happened." Eames said pointing to the downed tank and the bodies left frozen in the snow. The Lieutenant had found help after narrowly escaping the ambush. He had walked over twelve miles in the heavy snow, as if lost in a maze of white snow and dark trees. It took a few days to get back to the American encampment and get help.  
>"Were missing about 60." A privet said taking a head count of the dead.<p>

"Must have been taken prisoner." The gruff full bird Colonel said. "They dug a trap and opened fire on them."

"The Lt. Colonel was wounded and the Major ordered a surrender." Eames said feeling ashamed of himself for running away.  
>"Trying to save the rest of the men." The gruff Colonel said with a nod. "The Nazis are cornered animals right now. They will do anything at all to survive."<p>

"Do you think their still alive?" Eames asked hopefully.

"Yes, I do." The gruff officer said honestly. "They just have to _stay_ alive."

~ Ariadne received a letter from Arthur more than a week after her nightmare. She smiled at the idea of him holding her while she slept. She received the telegram from the war office an hour later.

~ Lydia had come home from her woman's group that evening to see her daughter-in-law sitting in the parlor. The neatly framed photo of Arthur, resplendent in his uniform, in her hands.

"Arthur's missing in action." She said coldly. "And I'm pregnant."


	8. Chapter 8

8.

~ "_I knew it!_" Lydia was near hysterics. Beth was calm and collected in the front parlor as her mother raged.

"I _knew_ he had gotten that girl in trouble and that was why he married her. I'm willing to bet that's not even his child." Lydia fumed.  
>"It's his baby, Mother." Beth said calmly. "My brother, <em>your son<em>, asked us to take care of his wife and his unborn child until he is home. Doesn't matter how long they knew each other or if the baby was conceived out of wedlock or not."

"It most certainly _does_ matter. Think of the scandal!" Lydia almost shouted.  
>"Mother. Arthur is missing in action. Don't you want to worry about that right now?" Beth said trying to appeal to her mother's softer side.<br>"I can't worry about that because I've got to deal with this horrific indiscretion living in my home." Lydia hissed. "If the child his his, and Arthur doesn't make it home, we will have to take custody." Lydia said finally.

"What?" Beth said wrinkling her nose.  
>"That girl is obviously not our sort. She trapped my son into marrying her. If Arthur doesn't make it home, I need to take care of his child. I can provide a better life for the baby then her." Lydia said rationally.<p>

"Mother, stop acting crazy. You can't take a child away from his mother." Beth said rationally.  
>"That girl will be free to go on her way in life. Free to re-marry and not have to worry about any... obligation." Lydia said.<br>"Mother!" Beth almost shouted. "I hope my brother comes home safe and sound. So he can know exactly how you have regarded his wife and_ ignored_ his wishes. This talk of stealing Ariadne's baby. You should be ashamed."

Neither woman saw Ariadne crouched on the servant's stairs, hearing everything.

~ She quietly retreated upstairs. Down a secluded hall, were the bedrooms of Arthur and his dead brothers. Beth had made a point of say they were off limits to everyone. The lady of the house keeping them as a shrine to her sons.

She found Arthur's room by the baseball name plate on the door and silently stole inside.

Arthur's boyhood bedroom was clean and well organized. She looked over his clothes and even the toys he had played with. Her future husband liking metal army men and toy tanks. A solider even before there was a war. She stole the warm looking blanket off his bed and returned to her appointed guest room.

It was cold outside and the first snowfall had already hit. She wrapped herself tightly under the blanket from Arthur's room.

"See, little one?" She whispered to the small life growing inside her. "Your father is keeping us warm."

~ In Manhattan, the office of veteran affairs was crowded and complicated. Ariadne wadded through despite her cast and was finally directed to a small office for Prisoner's of War.

"Your husband was with the 3rd?" A young man asked looking over her paperwork.

"Yes, he appears to have been MIA a week now." Ariadne said. "I was hoping there was news of him being listed as a Prisoner of War."

"Nothing so far on the wire, but news is slow to filter in." The youth said rummaging over his paper work.

"Well, is there anyone else I can speak with?" She asked.  
>"Short of Patton? No Ma'am." The young man said. "Look, I understand your concerned but it's hard to get information out. So much is top secret."<p>

~ Ariadne left the war office feeling dejected.

"Excuse me?" Came a soft voice. The words were English but the accent was French.

Ariadne looked up to see a lovely, woman with a small, blond boy in her arms.

"Did you say your husband was it the 3rd?" She asked.

Ariadne answered her in French and the woman looked relived as she sat down next to her.  
>"My name is Malory Cobb. My Husband, Dominic was with the 3rd when he was listed MIA." She said in elegant French.<br>"Colonel Cobb?" Ariadne said with a smile looking at the little boy in Malory's arms. The spitting image of Cobb.

"Yes, do you know him?"

"I do. I was in Paris during the first weeks of the liberation. I was a nurse. I met your husband then. He was there when I got this." She said waving at her leg. "He gave me away at my weeding." Ariadne said struck dumb by the serendipity of the moment.

"He wrote to me about a wedding. I have had no news since the telegram. They can't tell me anything." Malory said holding back tears.  
>"They won't tell me anything either." Ariadne said as Cobb's son grabbed hold of her cane. Playfully pulling it.<p>

The two women sat in silence for a long time and worried over their men.

~ The conditions in the barracks were unbearable. Arthur had at least twenty wounded men he had to look after and no medic. Only Cobb's injury was serious, but they all needed medical help. From what he recalled of the POW camps he helped to liberate, medical attention was not high on the list of priorities.

The American and British prisoners had not been feed in three days. They were not used to going so long without food and felt the devastating effects of hunger quickly.

There was no place for the men use the bathroom. Only a trench their captures made them dig. Arthur was glad it was so cold outside. Hopefully the freezing temperatures would halt any kind of outbreak from poor sanitation.

The men were huddled together in one small barrack for warmth as the Major counted their guards at less then a dozen. He let the guards think he didn't understand them when they talked about finding American officers to exchange the prisoners for immunity and safe passage out of Germany.

The Major strained to listen as their captures talked about some Army Colonel finding them.

"Arthur?" Cobb said looking pale. A fever had come over the Lt. Colonel.

"What is it?" Arthur huffed keeping an eye on their guards.

"Do you ever think about Ariadne? About your baby?" Cobb asked with a sickly cough.

"What do you think?" Arthur said bitterly.

His thoughts were plagued with images of him being killed in this snow covered limbo. Of his child, being born with no father. Of his precious bride, a young widow. He was glad she was at home with his mother and Beth. They would take care of her.

"I think about Mal all the time." Cobb said. His fever loosening his composure. "She haunts me. I see her like... she's is some kind of evil ghost. She talks to me. I see her... and I can't remember my children's faces."

Cobb had to get out of this place. He would die soon if they were not released. His gun shot wound was infected and he was delirious from the fever and lack of food.

Arthur turned away from the sickly looking Colonel. He watched the guards until night fell. His wounded were still not able to brave an unknown forest even if they could break out. They were all weak from hunger and would not be able to survive the cold unprotected.

'_We have to get on the trucks._' Arthur thought. But he never saw the trucks that brought them here. They had vanished, leaving just the dozen guards in a snug, warm house.

As night fell on the third day with no food, Arthur tried not to think about Ariadne, the baby or how hungry he was.


	9. Chapter 9

9.

~ Ariadne and Mal had become fast friends. They had both lived in Paris and had husbands who were not only friends, but missing in action together. Ariadne told Mal about the baby she was expecting and how Lydia had reacted to the news of Arthur being MIA and the pregnancy.

"Come and live with me." Mal said pouring her new friend a cup of tea.

"Arthur wants me to stay with his family." Ariadne said sadly.

"He wouldn't if he knew how his mother was acting." Mal said logically. "She wants to take your baby?" She shook her head in disbelief. "Come and live with me in the city. I have an extra room and I could use the help with the children."

"I don't know." Ariadne said.

"Your leg is healing fast. You can get a job as a nurse until the baby comes. My neighbor looks after the children while I'm at work, she can look after the baby as well." Mal said.

~ It was an easy decision to make. Ariadne moved in with Mal that very day. Her few belongings fit neatly into a suitcase as Beth helped her moved the new baby things they had gotten.

"I wish you would stay." Beth sighed. "Although, I understand."

"It's not your fault, Beth." Ariadne said as her sister-in-law helped to make her narrow little bed in the guest room of Mal's apartment.

"I know. It's Mother's. That's why I'm moving in with my non-Kosher boyfriend from the magazine."

"Beth!" Ariadne said in shock. Beth shrugged.

"He's been wanting me to come and live with him for some time now. I'm sick of fooling around with him during office hours. Might be nice to do it in a bed for a change." Beth said with a smile.

"Beth! Your a fallen woman!" Ariadne teased.

"Oh, I fell a long time ago." Beth said with a wave of her hand. "All these handsome GIs around New York? I'm not made of stone." Beth sighed as she hung up Ariadne's maternity clothes.

"Unfortunately, this means Mother has cut me off. Which means I won't be able to help you." Beth added sadly. "My writing doesn't pay much as it would if I were a man."

"I'll be fine. I'm going back to work as a nurse till the baby comes. Hopefully, Arthur will be home... soon." Ariadne said. Her thoughts wandering over the possibility that her husband might already be dead.

~ "Sir?" The skinny Corporal said to Arthur on the fifth day. The Major stood and looked out at the snow covered camp. A large red cross truck was parked at the barbed wire gates.  
>"Think were getting out, Sir?" The Corporal asked.<p>

Arthur swallowed hard and rubbed the facial hair that had grown wildly in the days since it had seen his shaving kit.  
>"I don't know." He whispered. He hoped that the truck wasn't stolen and help was really here for them. Cobb's fever was worse. The Colonel was pale and his skin was clammy as he struggled to breath.<p>

Arthur watched as a tall man dressed in brown army fatigues emerged from the truck along with a shorter man in green.

'_Eames, he made it out and brought help._' He thought as he was never so happy to see the Lieutenant.

Arthur watched the officer in brown talk with the guards. A tense conversations and finally, the two soldiers were allowed in.

"Sir." Arthur said as the Major and his relatively healthy men walked slowly to the unknown officer. Arthur could tell by the stride of the man that he was an officer of consequence despite being dressed in shabby fatigues with no rank. He was an older man. With a smattering of gray heair running though his crew cut.

"How are you son?" The gruff older man asked.

"Not well, sir." Arthur said. "Forgive me for not saluting. It would be best if they didn't know your an officer."

The gruff officer nodded as Eames walked around the camp. Taking a head count and looking at the wounded.

"We were captured five days ago. I have several men who need medical attention right away, and a good meal wouldn't hurt them either." Arthur told him.  
>"I understand, son." The gruff officer said. "Do any of these little pricks understand English?" He asked looking at the guards.<br>"I wouldn't speak freely, Sir. Just in case." Arthur told him.

"Do any of your men speak German? I have to use some damn flash cards and I might just piss them off more." The gruff officer said.

"I speak German, sir." Arthur said.

"You wouldn't happen to be Arthur, would you?" The officer asked as Eames came back.

"I am, sir." Arthur said nodding at Eames.

"Your friend here wandered in the woods for days till he found us. Helped to track you here." The gruff officer said. "Never would have found all of you with out him."

"We were hoping he made it out." Arthur said formally. Not willing to show their captures any emotion at being rescued.

"I know what you did in Paris, and at the death camps. I need your help right now. I need you to translate for me. So I can negotiate with these little pricks for your release." the gruff officer said.

"It would be my pleasure sir." Arthur said with a nod.

"Where's Cobb?" Eames whispered as the three of them turned and walked to the guards. "Was he killed?"

"No, but he was wounded. He's sick. Infection." Arthur said keeping his eyes on the guards.

~ The negotiations did not go well. The gruff officer promising their captures leniency but no immunity for any war crimes.

"Tell them killing our men didn't win any points with Uncle Sam!" The gruff officer said lighting a cigar. "Tell them to release all of our men and the Brits, and then we can talk about helping them.

Arthur dutifully translated and the guards became angry. Barking at Arthur to tell the gruff officer that no one would be let go until all of them were granted immunity.

"Sir, I have wounded that will not make it another day here." Arthur whispered thinking of Cobb. "Maybe if we can get them to let the wounded go."

"Alright, tell them we will escort their people out of the battle zone if they let you go. Best I can do." The gruff officer said.

It wasn't good enough. The Nazis were shouting at the Major as they waved their riffles at them.

"Sir, they want immunity or nothing." Arthur said. The gruff officer scowled at the angry looking guards.

Arthur took action. In steady German, he told the guards that he had many sick and injured. That if they let those men go, and kept the rest, the Army might be willing to work with them.

"What did you say to the little pricks?" The gruff office said while the guards conferred.

Arthur didn't answer as he worried the guards might turn the deal down.

In German he said boldly.

"I am a decorated Major in the US Army. I am valuable to them. You can keep me here, let the wounded go with these men."

The guards took the deal.

~ "Son, I was sent here _specifically_ to get yourself and one Colonel Dominic Cobb out of here." The gruff officer said. "I don't like failing at missions."

"Colonel Cobb is one of the wounded." Arthur said telling his men that the wounded were being evacuated.

Arthur and Eames found Cobb sweating and moaning on the floor of the barrack.

"Cobb?" Eames said touching his pale, pasty skin.

"Watch the leg." Arthur said as they helped their friend to stand.  
>"What's happening?" Cobb asked.<br>"Your going home." Arthur said casually. "Getting sick of looking at you."

"What about you?" Cobb asked.

"I'll be right behind you." Arthur said confidently as he and Eames loaded the sick and wounded men into the Red Cross van. The rest of his men, including the skinny Corporal looking longingly at the truck.

"Son, your a brave man. I can't promise I will be allowed to come back for you and the others." The gruff officer said.

"I know, Sir." Arthur said feeling shaky. "Sir?"

The gruff officer turned to the Major before climbing back into the truck with Eames.

"I... I have a young wife. I have a baby on the way." Arthur said. Half afraid to say the words.  
>The gruff man looked angry.<br>"Fuck orders, I'll be back to get you." He said before putting the truck into drive and speeding off.

Arthur watched the truck drive away and never saw one of the guards come up behind him and strike in in the back of the head. His world went black as he fell face first in the snow.


	10. Chapter 10

10.

~ Arthur woke up in bed with his wife.

"Arthur?" She whispered. Her hands running over his cleanly shaven jaw. Arthur stared for a long time at her lovely face. Her skin, pale and beautiful in the moonlight. Her dark locks falling in nice waves to her shoulders.

"Arthur, are you alright? I was so worried." She said in a soothing voice.

"I'm fine." He said. "I was... I was just cold and hungry for a little while. But I'm better now."

"Are you going to leave me?" She asked. Her face serene and angelic like.

"No." He said his mind feeling fuzzy. "No, I would never leave you."

"You feel like your leaving me." She said sadly.

"No. I have to get back to you. Get back to you and the baby." He whispered.

Her face was darker then normal. A ghostly gray that made her look almost frightening.

"Your going to _die_ here, sweetheart." She whispered in his ear. "Your going to die like all the others, and you'll never see me or your child again."

~ Arthur was pulled violently awake by cold water being dumped on him. He sat up sharply, sputtering and thought he was drowning.

"Well, so our Major is alive, no?" Came a voice. He was speaking in German and Arthur had to think a moment to understand him.  
>"I know you can hear me. I know, that you know what we are saying." The voice said slowly.<p>

Arthur looked around him. He was in a warm sitting room. All it's furniture was removed except a table and a chair which a Nazi officer was sitting in. Like the gruff officer, Arthur knew he was important not by his clothing, but by his demeanor. He sat too strait. Was too cocky and arrogant.

"I understand you." Arthur said in German pushing back his hair. Grateful the cold water at least cleaned him a little. He crawled closer to the roaring fire and felt how good it was to be warm after so many days in the snow.

"We have prepared you something to eat. We have bread. We have cheese. Some caned fruit even. A good meal." The Nazi said.

"My men are hungrier then I am." Arthur said ignoring the pain of long denied hunger.  
>"It is impolite to refuse hospitality. We are here to help you. We help you now, you will help us later, yes?" The Nazi told him.<p>

"You can help me, by feeding the men you have been starving." Arthur said stubbornly.

The Nazi chuckled.

"We have been talking to your men. Many of them were angry you surrendered. Also, that they did not get to leave with the wounded. They blame you, Major. They told us many things about you." He said

"Oh yeah?" Arthur said not interested. His stomach growling for the cheese and loaf bread on the table.

"Oh, yes." The Nazi said lighting a cigarette. "Said you are a war hero. But then, the heroes are only decided by the winners of the war. I studied history at University. This, is true of all wars."

Arthur recognized the smell of the cigarette smoke. He patted his front shirt and didn't feel his father's silver cigarette case.  
>"Pretty lady you keep hidden in here." The Nazi said looking inside the silver case, now carelessly held in his gloved hand. "I assume she is your wife, sir?"<p>

Arthur was incensed. He wanted to rush the man and rip his head off. Not for stealing his father's case, or smoking his rationed cigarettes, but for daring to look with lustful eyes at his wife.  
>"She is my wife." he calmly said instead.<p>

"I know _I_ would want nothing more then to return to her... a whole man." The Nazi said in a lazy drawl. "You have the power to go back to her with your manhood intact. I suggest you think about this. If not, then such a lovely creature will not want what is returned to her."

~ Ariadne spent the winter with Mal and her two children. James and Phillipa were lovely and well behaved. Mal worked as a secretary at a law office and would often bring work home with her. Her type writer clacking well into evening as the children played or colored quietly. Ariadne would cook for them when she didn't have to work. Her new job was with the war department. Treating the wounded everyday. Same work she did in London. The pay was good and she didn't have to stay on her still healing leg for very long. Beth had moved in with her boyfriend. A lovely older man she called Arnold. Lydia, had gone into a fit of rage that Ariadne and Beth had so suddenly abandoned her.

"She's more upset that _we_ left _her_." Beth laughed.

~ The holidays felt empty without Arthur. She burrowed each night in the blanket she had stolen from his childhood room, keeping her compact open on her little night table. His handsome face looking back at her. The old habit comforted her. Making her feel he was with her as she woke up to his face.

Everyday that passed, every week that slipped away, she could feel that there was less of a chance he would be found. The odds were not in her favor as she listened to war reports on the radio.

Her only comfort was Mal. Her friend and roommate knew exactly how she felt. Malory missed her husband. Evidence of their interrupted marriage was all over the apartment. Their wedding photo was proudly displayed next to pictures of their beautiful children. The Colonel's wife telling her son and daughter that their father is a hero and would be home soon.

James and Phillipa believing and never doubting.

Ariadne cried at night. Her heart heavy with doubt.

~ Ariadne was not idle however. She called the war office every other day for news. What they could tell her was very little. So much was classified as top secret and they would let her know if her husband was found.

In sheer desperation, she telegraphed the Matron in London and asked her to send word if any of the men from the US Army 3rd division arrived at the Hospital. She described in detail her husband, Colonel Cobb and that they had been MIA over two weeks now. The lengthy telegraph cost her a weeks pay to send out. Ever polite, the Matron telegraphed back saying that she would do her best.

~ Arthur had decided the Nazi didn't scare him. Once he was properly warm and dry by the fire, he stood up and casually started eating the bread and cheese. The Nazi officer had even had one of his

lackeys bring in hot coffee.

"Sit. Sit down, please." The officer said with a repugnant smile.

"No, thank you." Arthur said casually. "I only sit at a table with friends."

Arthur, though weakened from hunger and a prisoner, seemed to an outsider to be the one in charge. He stood tall over the sitting Nazi and stretched his legs as he ate.

'_Slowly, eat it slowly_.' He told himself '_No use throwing it back up again._'

"Yes, very good. I want us to be friends." The Nazi said with his smile that showed a healthy set of teeth. "Tell me. Tell me everything about America. I think it's a very interesting country. Even with all our faults. Your wife, she is in America to, yes?"

Arthur said nothing. His stomach clenching at the contact of food and the mention of his sweet wife on this man's lips.

'_Little Prick_.' The Major thought remembering the gruff officer. He suddenly decided that was what he would call the Nazi in his mind. A mental shield that would keep the enemy in his place.

He didn't respond to '_Little Prick'_ as he slowly sipped his hot coffee. The Nazi officer only laughed.

"Of course she is in America. Telegraphed you from New York. Expecting a baby I see." He said pulling out the yellow telegraph from behind her picture. Arthur felt his blood run cold. He never hid his emotions well, but this time he had to.

"Haven't seen her in a while. Kids not even mine." He said carelessly. His heart paining him as he tried to steel himself from the longing he felt.

"Oh dear." The Little Prick said. His voice dripping with sympathy. "Unfaithful to her husband in war time. Such a shame, but it happens."

"You know that from your history classes?" Arthur asked finishing his bread and picking up the tin of fruit.

"Yes. Only Odysseus, with his precious Penelope can expect a _loyal_ wife." He said. "Then, it is not easy to be a soldiers wife. All the loneliness. The worry."

"Are my men being fed?" Arthur asked sipping the coffee. It was snowing heavily outside as he looked out the window and couldn't see the barrack.

"Why do you care, Major?" The Nazi said standing and walking to stand next to him. "They no longer respect you. They feel you have betrayed them."

"Let me save you some time, Sir." Arthur said casually finishing his coffee and wiping his mouth with the a napkin.  
>"I don't believe a word you are saying. I think you will tell me anything at this point to get what you want." He said.<p>

"And I don't believe a word you have said about your wife." The Nazi said indifferently. "I think you love her. More the Odysseus loved Penelope. I think a man who keeps a lady safely hidden in a case like that... I think you love her and the child. The child is naturally yours."

Arthur said nothing.  
>"Do you think, Major, that your wife worries over you now? You have been here almost a week. Surely she has been told of your disappearance." The Nazi had a pleased look on his face as two other Nazis silently came into the room. Arthur didn't look at them. Didn't acknowledge 'Little Prick'.<p>

He knew what was coming.

"Did you get enough to eat? More coffee perhaps? I am very sorry I can not offer you sugar." The Nazi said.

"I'm fine." Arthur said numbly. Taking a deep breath.

The guards advanced on him them. While the 'Little Prick' was smoking his cigarettes and looking at the photo in the silver case, Arthur was beaten. He tried to protect his face and vital organs but the men held him down and kicked him till he was coughing up blood.

"I believe, I shall take your lady to bed with me tonight." The Nazi officer said with a sinister smile. "She may prove a distraction."

Arthur looked up at him and tried to see through the fast swelling of his eye. His body hurt and he was spitting out bright red blood. As he watched the him leave with the silver case, the photos and the telegram. All that was precious to him in the world.

~ In London, the Matron had just climbed out of the air raid shelter with the few patients who could walk. Air raids were once more becoming a way of life for them. Like a game children play.

'_Oh here comes the siren, everyone run and hide!_'

Run and hide was right. The halls were always eerily empty during a bombing. The only ones left were the critical who could not be moved.

"Were alright!" She called out to her nurses as they helped the wounded back to their wards. "We still have dinner to serve and work to do. War or no war."

It was the Matron's weapon against those who bombed her. To be strong for the nurses and wounded. To have a spine of steel that the Germans could not break.

'_Never show anyone you are tired or afraid. Be a pillar of English strength and courage for everyone around you._' She told herself as she stood a little straighter and walked swiftly to ward for the critical.

She had gotten a telegram from the Red Cross nurse, Ariadne, yesterday. She had told her she would look, but she had no confidence her husband would be found alive. This war had taken so many.

The Matron looked over the critical men, fresh from the front lines. Their charts saying nothing more then their names. No information about where they were or their unit. Several were British who were deep in the throws of fever.

"Mal." Came a weary voice. "Mal." It said again.

The Matron went over to the wounded man. His chart showing he was an American. A Colonel.

"Mal? _Bad_ is it?" She asked remembering her Latin. "Your safe now. Your in London."

"Arthur? Where is Arthur?" The Colonel asked. The Matron froze.

'_Arthur. That's Ariadne's husband's name_.' She turned and looked at the man. He was sweating. Succumbing to blood poisoning from his leg wound.

"Did you say _Arthur_?" She asked.

"Arthur." The blond man repeated dumbly. "He was right behind us. In the camp. Where is he?"

The Matron gave Colonel Cobb some water and went to search each bed. She carefully looked over charts and names. No Arthur, and Cobb was the only officer brought in with these men. The Matron raced to the locked medicine cabinet. The Doctor had pronounced the Colonel too far gone to spare antibiotics on. These medications were hard to get with the recent bombing and needed to be saved for those who had a chance. Cobb was given pain pills and left to die.

The Matron filled a syringe of very powerful antibiotics and refused to let him.


	11. Chapter 11

11.

Ariadne.

Found what your friend lost.

Safe and on the mends.

Have not found what you lost yet.

Will keep looking.

Regards.

~ Ariadne read and re-read the telegram over and over. When the youth knocked on her door and presented her with a telegram, she was certain it contained news about Arthur's death. No good news arrived in telegrams. That was the strong belief. Whenever a telegram boy arrived, at work, at home, people in the building and other rooms all fell silent and respectful for the one who's hand had to touch the paper. Who had to open it and say a prayer before reading it.

But now, _hope_. Colonel Cobb was alive! He was alive and in London. The Matron had found Cobb and had written her this strange telegram to tell her. She must have been afraid to give any details about Cobb. The war office saying Cobb and Arthur were apart of a top secret mission.

Such information going out over a telegraph, might get the Matron into serious trouble. So she had chosen her words carefully. No mention of names or husbands. For all anyone knew, some anonymous person had found a pair of lost gloves for them.

Ariadne smiled and held the telegram close. If Cobb was alive, perhaps Arthur was to.

~ Arthur felt hope drain out of him. He was kept separated from his men and allowed to stay in the house where he was warm and dry. He slept on the floor as the bitter wind howled against the window. By afternoon, he was brought a small ration of bread and cheese again. No coffee this time or fruit.

'Little Prick' would talk to him for hours. Arthur, always refusing to sit with him. Choosing instead to stand. The height difference making him feel better as he towered over the man who held him.

"My men?" Arthur asked. Little Prick sighed.

"Just like you Major, I care about my own men. I want them out of this dieing world and safely in a warm, dry place. Australia perhaps or South America. This, your people can arrange for us." He said. "For this, we give you and your men back."

"That's not what I asked you." Arthur said with a growl. "I asked if my men were alright. You can't get anything if my men are hurt in anyway. Are they being fed?"

"Alas, winter is never kind." Was all Little Prick said as the two thugs marched into the room after Arthur had finished eating.

He was beaten again. His barely healed cuts re-opening. Little Prick standing over him as finally, the guards left him bleeding on the floor and gasping for air.

"I enjoyed my time with your wife's photo last night." The Nazi said in a slanderous tone. "Ariadne is it? Beautiful name. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl, yes?"

Arthur said nothing. He was fairly sure his rib was broken and he clutched it in pain.

"Tell me, when you come limping home, will she still want you? Your child, a boy lets say, what will he think of you? Will he be proud of the man he sees? A broken man? A hobbled man? A man, who's wife can barely stand the sight of?"

Arthur spat out more blood and tried to ignore Little Prick.

"Oh, I have no doubt your wife will remarry. Even with a child in tow. She is lovely. She will find some nice man. A _whole _man. One who will keep her bed warm. I imagined her last night. Doing all kinds of wicked things to me. She may look sweet and innocent in pictures, but I can tell she loves to do dirty things with men." He said lighting a cigarette. "I kept myself very pleased thinking of all she would do to me."

Arthur ignored the sharp, protesting pain in his rib and found the strength to attack the Nazi officer. What he had said hurt him. Wounded him worse then any blow.

The Major was quick and nimble and easily took down the clumsy Nazi. He was on him then, hitting him repeatedly while the officer tried to shout for help.

Blood was flowing from the Nazi's face when a riffle butt hit Arthur in the head. His world going black again.

~ Arthur paid dearly for his revenge. He was locked in a room with no windows and barely enough space to lay down in. He was given no mattress and had to sleep on the ice cold floor. The only other object in the room was a bucket for when nature called.

"Major, I believe you have broken my nose." The Little Prick said holding Ariadne's white handkerchief to his bleeding face. Another item stolen from Arthur.

"I think it suits you." Arthur said callously.

The Nazi glared back at the Major through blacked eyes and a red, swollen, disfigured nose.

"Your men, will pay the price for your savagery, Major." Little Prick said. "And I will make certain they know who is responsible."

The heavy door slammed shut and Arthur was alone in the dark.

~ Snow was falling over the trees. The sky was cloudy and empty of life. A bitter cold was seeping into a hungry body.

Ariadne had taken to walking every mornings in Central Park. It was freezing cold and Mal told her it was snowing too hard to be out. But her cast was finally off and her leg needed the work out after being idle so long. She walked the paths of the park until she was numb with cold.

She wanted the cold. Needed to feel how awful the bleakness of it was. She knew, deep down in her bones that Arthur was freezing to. She knew he was cold and hungry and she wanted to feel what he felt. As if his suffering would be eased if she suffered to.

She didn't want to eat. She wanted to be hungry like she was certain he was.

The telegram had depressed her more then cheered her. It had been another week and still no news. Why hadn't Arthur been with Cobb? What was taking so long? She had telegraphed the Matron and thanked her. Mal was so happy. The War Department, ever slow, had not told Mal yet that Cobb was alive. The Matron saying he was up and walking around the hospital. She had used the code name 'elephant' to say he missed Mal and would be home soon. His injury was sever enough to get him out of the war.

Nothing could be said over the wires about what had happened to them. So the women waited. Waited and prayed.

"Ma'am? Do you need help?" Came a voice. Ariadne turned and looked through the heavy snowfall. A tall, well groomed young man was approaching her.

Her first instincts were of panic. Beth and Mal had both told her to be weary of strangers in the city.

"I'm fine." She said warningly as he reached her. He was very good looking and covered warmly in a richly tailored wool coat.  
>"I'm sorry, um. With the cane and all... I guess I thought you were an old lady." He laughed.<p>

She sighed and looked down at herself. She was bundled tightly against the freezing cold and the snow. Her coat was layered with two scarfs and a wool cap. She could see how it was easy for him to think that.

"I had a broken leg." She explained feeling the snow fall on her eye lashes. She hoped slightly on her cane as her leg started to hurt from the cold.

"You had a broken leg and your out in this mess?" He asked. His breath coming on in delicate puffs. He was a pleasant looking man. His eyes were very blue and he smiled at her warmly. He wasn't condescending when he spoke to her as she hobbled along the path.

"Ma'am. It's too cold out. Let me walk you to a cab." He said.

"I'm fine." She said.

"Ma'am, it's too cold." He insisted. "Please, lets go to this dinner and get something hot to eat." He said. The snow was falling in a torrent now and she could feel the weight of it through her clothes, past her skin and into her bones. Her still healing leg ached and the idea of a hot bowl of soup made her remember she was starving and made her think of her baby.

"Alright." She said at last. The well groomed man walked with her as if he were afraid she would fall at any moment.

"I can walk just fine." She said with a laugh. She spoke to soon as she slipped on an icy patch of side walk and the well groomed man neatly caught her before she hit the ground.

"I have no doubt you can walk." He said with a chuckle. "What's you name?" He asked helping her to right herself.

"Ariadne." She said. Her legs unsteady and she didn't relish a fall that would re-break her leg.

"My names Robert." He said. "Robert Fischer."

~ "I have never met so many fucking little _pricks_, as I have in this war!" The gruff officer fumed. He was chewing on a cigar again. Command had refused his request to go back for the remaining men that were being held. The gruff officer had just seen the wounded off on a plane to London. Colonel Cobb was not looking well. The Colonel was sweating and coughing and the medic had said something about blood poisoning. Eames had begged the medic not to amputate the leg that had turned black around the wound. Instead giving him a shot of antibiotics. The gruff officer doubted he would make it.

Eames was standing close by and waiting to find out what would happen next.

"What do we do now, Sir?" Eames asked.

"Your not in this man's Army, Son." The gruff officer said. "You go back to your own people."

"Sir, these _are_ my people. These my friends." Eames said. "You promised Arthur you would come back for him and I want to help. I ran away and left them. I have to help." Eames said. His face almost manic.  
>"You did the right thing." The gruff officer said looking at Eames. "If you hadn't have found help, we never would have been able to find them. Still, it won't do any good because I can't get orders for a rescue." The gruff officer said.<p>

"I say 'fuck that'." Eames said liking the casual swearing of the American.

The gruff officer looked at Eames in surprise.

"That's the attitude I need." He said. "You talked me into it. But if we get caught, I'm going to say it was all your idea."

"Fair enough." Eames said.


	12. Chapter 12

12.

~ "My husband is in Europe." Ariadne said once she and Robert Fischer were in the warm little dinner. Steam had curled up the large windows, obscuring the view inside and out. Ariadne and Robert were the only ones foolish enough to brave the snow storm that day.

"Is he alright?" Robert asked as a tiny waitress brought them each a bowl of soup and sandwiches. The well groomed gentleman ordering hot coco for her. She didn't say anything for a long time. Her stomach tightening over the smell of hot, delicious food. She wondered if Arthur had eaten that day. When was the last time he ate something hot? When was the last time he was someplace warm?

She fought back a sudden urge to cry and failed.

"Hey, I'm sorry." Robert said as she cried ugly sobs. Covering her face with her napkin. "I should have never have asked you... that's none of my business."

"No." She said though her tears. "It's not your fault. My husband... I got a telegram... he's MIA. He... War Department can't tell me anything." She said feeling that tightness in her stomach again.

"I'm sorry." Robert said. His blue eyes were very kind as he handed her his handkerchief.

"I think, I think I walk in the snow because I'm afraid he's cold. That he might be hungry and cold." She said softly.

"Doesn't help him to give yourself pneumonia." Robert said with a half smile.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm telling you all this. You don't even know me." She said feeling suddenly very foolish. Robert shrugged and smiled.

"Maybe it was fate." He said.

~ Mal was sent a telegram in late January that Cobb was alive and would be coming home injured.

"War department takes so long." Mal mumbled as the two women looked at the official confirmation that a Colonel Dominic Cobb was safe and recovering in a London hospital.

"Nothing about what happened to him. Or the rest of the 3rd." Ariadne whispered. She turned to the roast she was preparing. Ariadne had recently taken a great interest in cooking and baking. She read recipe books and selected dinners she hoped Arthur would enjoy. She would go into men's dress shops and buy clothes for him she thought he would like. She wanted him to have something to wear when he came back.

If he _did_ make it home, she wanted to cook, wash his clothes and take care of him.

Ariadne rubbed her wet hands on her apron. Her condition was slightly more pronounced these days and her hand wandered over the slight swell of baby.

"I know Arthur will be fine. Most likely, he was taken to another hospital." Mal said. "The War Department is taking their time to release information."

Ariadne nodded. The Matron was, above all things, efficient and careful. She had made the rounds of all hospitals in London, looking for Arthur. Her most recent telegraph said she had not found her '_elephant_'.

~ Arthur had no idea how much time had passed while in his windowless cell. He had not been fed and the sharp insistent pain of hunger made it hard to sleep. Whatever fat he had on his lean body was slowly melting away and making him feel the cold so much more sharply.

The Little Prick had stopped coming to see him and Arthur wondered if he had been in this dark place for days or years. His face and body hurt from the cold and the beating as he passed his time sleeping and dreaming.

~ "Captain, I can't keep going out with you." a pretty Red Cross nurse said as he guided her away from traffic and back to the hospital.

He hadn't really been looking at her, but at that intoxicating red dress she was wearing. Her petite body beautifully displayed for him.

"Why not?" He asked feeling wounded. The crowed Paris streets taking advantage of the freedom from the Nazis and were shopping, eating and talking happily. Cafe's had thrown their doors open to invite the Americans to eat and spend their money. Arthur had enjoyed a lovely date with the pretty nurse and was walking her back to the hospital dormitory.

"I'm a nurse, your a solider, it's not fitting." Ariadne said worriedly.

They walked away from the crowds and were silent for a while.

"So, you don't want to see me anymore?" He asked teasingly.

She hid a blush and smile.

"I didn't say that." She said.

"Is this because I kissed you?" He said. "Because I'm moving too fast? It's war time, we may not be here tomorrow."

"No." She said honestly. "No, it's not that."

"Then what?" He asked keeping a slow pace with her.

"It's against Red Cross policy to date a solider." She said not looking at him.

"Hmm." He said pretending to think. "Then I'll just have to go AWOL." He said.

She was giggling then as he pulled her closer to him. Her small body fitting neatly into his as he leaned her back slightly.

"You can hide me, and we can run away together." He said stealing a kiss. Her breath was sweet and she protested only slightly to his lips moving over hers.

She was kissing him back, her cheeks a lovely pink as he could feel her chest rising to meet his.

"Captain." She breathed as his large hands and fingers laced around hers. The people on the streets ignoring the young lovers.

"Call me Arthur." He whispered breaking away and looking at her.  
>"Arthur." She whispered. Her voice broken from her heated breathing. He was kissing her again and could feel his body come alive at the contact of something so small, soft, and deliciously feminine.<p>

"Arthur, please." She whispered. "This isn't going to work."

"Yes it will." He whispered. "I _know_ it will."

She didn't say anything as he held her eyes with his. Her hand wandering up the front of his uniform.

He sensed her helplessness then. Knew she would give into him. It was so right. So perfect. His instincts telling him she was for him. This precious creature was always meant for him.

~ Arthur woke up in his cold cell. The memory of that pretty nurse was still with him. The delightful memory of her kiss. Still making his lips tingle.

Ariadne had been real. He had courted her, married her, made love to her and she would have his only child.

No matter what happened to him now, nothing could change the fact that she had been real. If he died in this place, he would die having loved her.

~ In a frozen wasteland. Eames had climbed a high tree. He was watching the camp from this height and doing recon. The prisoners was still huddled in the solitary barrack. It looked like they were being fed at least once a day, but the unforgiving cold would mean they would not be able to survive much longer.

The gruff officer was camped out a few miles away with a dozen volunteers. Many of whom Arthur had saved from the POW camps. They had all defied orders and made an illegal trek into the snow to rescue the men.

~ "Sir." Eames said after watching the camp for a few hours. "Men are still in the barrack."

"The Major?" The gruff officer asked chewing his unlit cigar.

"Didn't see him." Eames sighed. They had no fire burning and instead built igloo type shelter in the snow. There presence in these woods was completely hidden.

"Little pricks most likely have him in another place." The gruff officer said.

"How do you know that?" Eames asked.

"It's what I would do. Separate your officer from the men. Tell him you men have betrayed you or their dead. He's somewhere else."

"So what do we do?" Eames asked.  
>"Were running out of time. The cold is hurting those men and if the Major is still alive, he's on borrowed time." the Gruff Officer said. The other men looked at their leader excitedly. "We roll in tonight." He said finally.<p>

~ Arthur was half asleep when the sound of grenades shook him awake. He would know the sound they made anywhere. They were American built weapons and had a very distinct sound. He could hear shouting through the walls on the house and gun fire. A distant _tat tat tat_ from outside. More shouting and he could hear footsteps running to his cell.

His door flew open and Arthur was blinded by the light that flooded his dark room.

"I can at least make sure you never see home again, Major." The Nazi officer said pointing a Luger at him as he tried to get his broken, beaten and starved body to stand.

Then, there was a loud bang and the Nazi's face melted. Eames appeared in the lighted hallway.

"Hello, Darling." The Lieutenant said with a cocky smile. "You ready to go home yet?" He asked helping the wounded Major to his feet.

Arthur couldn't take his eyes off the dead Nazi that had tormented him. His face blow away by the Lieutenant.

"Stop, stop just a second." Arthur said collapsing on the Nazi who's face looked like raw hamburger meat.

"We don't have a lot of time, Mate." Eames said said worriedly as Arthur looked through the Nazi officer's pockets. His hands found the familiar silver cigarette case and he quickly pocketed it along with the Luger.

Outside was a dark world of smoke and confusion.

"Major!" The gruff officer said as Eames helped Arthur hobble out of the guard house. "Are you injured?" He asked.

"No, Sir." Trying to stand straighter and walk on his own.

"Good man." The gruff officer said. "Ask these little dick suckers where the trucks are." He said. Arthur saw the Nazis were all kneeling in the snow. Looking worried as several of their American and British prisoners stood over them with riffles. The former prisoners had overtaken them when the attack happened.

Arthur slowly asked them where the trucks were and the Nazis pointed to a garage across the camp. Camouflaged to blend in with the trees.

"You men, go!" The gruff officer said nodding to the other prisoners. "You men, put them down. We don't have room for prisoners, and I'm not feeding them." He said to the prisoners holding weapons over the guards.

They didn't have to be told twice. Arthur watched in cold comfort as his men shot their captures in the head. Blood spotting the snow as Eames helped him walk to the garage.

"Glad to see your alright, Sir." The skinny Corporal said.

"Glad to see you are." Arthur said patting the young man on the back. Is everyone else alright?"

"Were all still alive and ready to leave, sir." The Skinny Corporal said as the trucks roared into life. Eames put Arthur in the passenger seat and drove them out behind the gruff officer's truck. The men crowded in the back.

The trucks vanished in the snow. The camp was empty, with only the dead left behind.

**Fan-Fic is acting up. Not sure what is going on. I hope all of you who sighn up for alerts are getting them. I try to update twice a day, so keep checking. Hopefully they will fix it soon.**


	13. Chapter 13

13.

~ Arthur kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Kept waiting to wake up from this dream or for those dead Nazis to rise from their snowy graves and pull him back.

"How... how long were we there?" Arthur stammered.  
>"We got the wounded out about fourteen days ago, Major." Eames said as the Lieutenant drove slowly over the snowy road.<p>

"_Fourteen days?_" Arthur whispered. He couldn't believe it had been that long. Sometimes it felt like years, but he had been asleep for so long, he hadn't noticed. The room he was being held in had no windows and they never fed him after he attacked Little Prick.  
>"Yeah, sorry it took so long. We had to go against orders to get you." Eames said as finally the trucks arrived at an Army camp.<p>

The gruff Colonel was shouting at people who thought they were Nazis in their German trucks.

"I said hold your fire, you stupid fuck." He shouted at a scared looking Privet.

~ Arthur had to be pressured to eat. The hot soup they gave him made his empty stomach clench shut. His last meal of bread and cheese had been twelve days ago and before that, five days with no food. He needed to force himself to eat again.

"Eat it _slow_, son." The gruff officer said once they were alone in the officer's tent. Arthur ate two spoonfuls before he felt he might throw up.

"I can't, Sir." He said feeling himself want to lurch as he was suddenly too dizzy to sit up.

"Hey!" The gruff officer said. "I didn't risk a court marshal so you could die on me."

Arthur took a few more sips of soup.

"We have to make you strong again. We have to get you home to your wife, remember?" Her said lighting a cigarette.

"Can I have one of those?" Arthur asked pointing to the cigarette. "That little prick who captured us, he smoked all of mine."  
>"If you finish your soup." The Colonel said with a smile.<p>

~ The gruff officer wasn't court marshaled. It seemed even those above him were a little afraid of him.

For a few days, Arthur was kept at the Army camp till he got his strength back. He spent his days sleeping and reading from the Colonel's collection of books. The older man had a taste for the classics. Books Arthur had not read since he was in school. It felt like another person had read those books. A young man with no idea what war was really about. How he longed to be that young man again.

He poured over the_ Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ as if they held all the secrets of the world within them. The Nazi officers talk of Odysseus and Penelope seeming especially poignant right now.

He slept on an Army cot and didn't venture outside the officer's tent. Eames would bring him dinner and the two of them would smoke and talk about nothing.

When he shaved each morning, he had to stare long and hard at his reflection. He had changed somehow in that camp. It wasn't just the sudden weight loss or the days of sleeping and the cold. His face looked haunted now.

At night, before he went to bed, he propped up the silver cigarette case on an ammo box and fell asleep looking at her picture. Her delicate face that held the barest hint of a smile. Her brow dress, falling so beautifully over her figure.

When he told Eames and the gruff officer what Little Prick had said he had done over her picture. They had laughed.

"Son, that's not true." The Colonel said smoking a smelly cigar and winning all their money at poker. "Nazis can't get a hard dick. That's why they became Nazis."

They had all enjoyed a good laugh and Arthur felt much better when he looked at his sweetheart, his forever, in the silver case.

~ "What do you mean I can't telegraph my wife?" Arthur almost shouted a week after his rescue.

"Son, command has to debrief you and I wouldn't plan on that happening any time soon." The gruff Colonel said. "You orders are to stay with us as we go into Berlin."

"My wife thinks I'm MIA. She thinks I'm dead." Arthur said beseechingly. "Just... just let me send her a letter at least. Let her know I'm alright. You can check it if you want to. I wouldn't say anything about where I am or what's happening." Arthur promised.

"I have my orders." The gruff officer said. "Don't worry, war is almost done. You'll be home before summer."

~ Summer. His baby was due in summer.

~ Cobb was sent home after a month in the London hospital. Mal received a telegram that her husband was coming home one day before his ship made port in New York. Ariadne felt different somehow. Her heart didn't feel so heavy as she helped Mal clean the house in anticipation for Cobb's homecoming.

Maybe it was the pregnancy. Maybe the baby was making her feel slightly happier. Mal was so excited but tried to keep herself calm. She had not seen her husband since her son was born, and didn't want to tell the children their father was coming home until he was actually through the door.

Ariadne and Beth had decided to take the children to a movie and a long promised trip to the zoo.

~ It was almost dinner time when Ariadne and Beth pulled the kids home. They were tired and hungry and in perfect condition to see their father. Their busy day had worn them out and they wouldn't be too hyper.

Beth was anxious to meet this mysterious Cobb who had been a friend to her brother.

What greeted them was not the Dominic Cobb she remembered. The Colonel stood in uniform looking painfully thin and with sunken eyes. He was standing, but leaning heavily on a cane.  
>"Darling." Mal said kindly. "You remember me telling you Ariadne was living here."<p>

Cobb stared at Ariadne for a long time. Beth holding fast to James who was hiding behind both women. Afraid of the father he had never met. Phillipa looked for a long time at her father. After over 3 years, she didn't remember or recognized him.  
>"James, Phillipa." Mal said sternly. "I want you to come and say hello to your father."<p>

The children cowered away from the stranger.

"It's alright, Mal." Cobb whispered. He looked at Ariadne again. "Hello, Ariadne." he said.

"Cobb." Ariadne said in a whisper. She turned to her sister-in-law. "Cobb, this is Beth. She's Arthur's sister."

~ Ariadne cooked a simple dinner. One which Cobb barely ate. Each forkful seemed to pain him.

"Eat, Darling." Mal coxed gently. "Your too thin." She added.

Cobb shook his head. He hadn't said much all evening and the women around him hadn't pressed him. He never spoke a word about what had happen to him. Never explained the sever limp that required him to use a cane.

"I'm going to put the children to bed." Beth said softly as she stood.  
>James and Phillipa went quietly with her. Eying the stranger with frightened eyes.<p>

~ "Cobb?" Ariadne asked after Beth had gone. "Where is Arthur?"

Cobb shook his head and she looked over his pasty, wax like skin. His eyes were no longer that bright blue she remembered. He looked almost ghostly now. Not just from the blood poisoning but from something else.  
>"I hear congratulations are in order." Cobb said trying to force himself to sound bright and happy. He waved at her abdomen.<p>

"Cobb." Ariadne said more forcefully. "Tell me, tell me what happened. Where is Arthur?"

"We... we were marching. In the snow. We were captured." He said numbly. As if he were in a trance. "I was shot. I was wounded. Arthur negotiated with our captures to let myself and the other wounded go." Cobb said.

"Arthur." Ariadne said ready to cry. "Where is he? Cobb, where is Arthur?"

Cobb shook his head sadly.

"I don't know." He said in a far away voice. "He said he would be right behind us, and next thing I knew, I was waking up in a hospital in London."

~ "If your friend's husband made it out, maybe yours will to." Robert said.

Ariadne, shrugged and tried to keep up with his long, easy strides.  
>"Cobb looks so different now." She whispered as they walked through the melting snow. Since they had first met in the park, almost a month ago, Robert had meet her at the same trail every morning. Ariadne found he was polite and easy to talk to. After their walk, they would go the dinner for soup and hot chocolate.<p>

"Robert? Why aren't you in the war?" She asked. He chuckled.  
>"I had tuberculosis as a child." He said. "Left scars on my lungs. I can't run very far without getting winded." He said with a shrug.<p>

"Oh." Was all she said.  
>"I would have loved to have gone to war. Instead I'm left here while everyone else goes and fight Hitler." He said. The air still chilly enough to see his breath. "Everyone else gets to be a hero."<br>"I'm sure my husband wishes he were home right now." She said as they waited to cross the street.

"Well if I was your husband, I'd want to be home to." He laughed.


	14. Chapter 14

14.

~ "Sir, when will I be debriefed by command?" Arthur asked one morning. There was talk that the unit he had found himself in would be leaving for Berlin in the morning. A strong arm campaign meant to be the final nail in Hitler's coffin. It had been two weeks since he was rescued from the camp and he wanted to get word back to his wife that he was alive.

"Can't say for sure." The gruff Colonel said. "Were taking heavy casualties."

He lit another one of his foul smelling cigars.

"Sir, my wife, she thinks I'm not coming home. That I'm dead." Arthur almost pleaded.  
>"Son, this is one order I can't disobey." The gruff officer said. "We are running silent right now. We are not allowed any non essential communications until further notice. We can't have the enemy track our movements."<p>

"Sir, it's been _months_ since she has heard from me." Arthur pleaded again.

"Son, It's been _years _since I've seen my wife. Your wife is fine. Safe and sound. We have a job to do." The gruff Colonel barked.

Arthur sighed and watched him walk away. Eames had left with the British troops a few days ago. Arthur had to remember to be a solider again as he slowly got his strength back. He was grateful it was already March. The snow was melting and he never wanted to see snow again. White snow falling, it held to many memories.

~ Cobb was not the same. He was very quite and reserved. The noise his children made while playing seemed to upset him. He would look at them as if they were strange creatures that had landed in his living room without explanation.

At night, Cobb and Mal would argue. Mal would spend all day, cooking and cleaning. Tending to her husband, home at last from the war. Cobb didn't seem to notice. He would barely eat anything and spend the rest of the evening on the balcony, smoking and listening to news about the war on the radio.

"James asked me the other day when his father was going back to where he came from." Mal said sadly as the two women were doing the grocery shopping.

Ariadne had moved in with Beth. Her sister-in-law's boyfriend, Arnold, had decided to go back home to his wife. Beth seemed fine with it and quickly moved on to another man. Ariadne was still going for her morning walks. Meeting Robert about halfway through the park. They would talk about politics, ligature, art and travel. Anything but the war or personal things. Then, they would go to the little dinner they liked and order soup, sandwiches and hot chocolate.

One afternoon, it was very warm inside the little dinner and Ariadne had to shed her winter coat before she sat down.

Robert looked up in surprise at her obvious condition. She hung her head slightly and didn't say anything. Didn't look at him. She wasn't sure why she hadn't told him she was pregnant. It just seemed too intimate a thing to tell a stranger.

Robert acted like he either didn't notice or didn't care. But did order her a glass of milk with her coco.

"It's not for you." He said kindly when she protested.

~ "What did you tell James?" Ariadne asked as she helped Mal pick out fruit. Oranges had suddenly appeared in the stores around New York and women were frantic to get them. Ariadne had grand plans for them. She wanted to eat an orange for breakfast every morning. The fruit would cure her of this winter sickness she had. Make her blood feel more alive again.

"I told him his father _was _home." Mal said as they picked out more fruit.

"Cobb will be fine. I've seen soldiers like him before and they just need time and people around them who love them." Ariadne said.

"He accused me of being unfaithful to him last night." Mal said wiping her hand over her eyes.

"Mal..." Ariadne said rubbing her hand over her friend's shoulder.

"I know a lot of men are worried about that right now. They left wives and girlfriends behind." Mal said. "I just... I thought Cobb and I... we had something stronger then that."

"You do. It will just take time for him to remember." Ariadne assured her.

~ It was still cold and windy as Ariadne and Robert were walking through the park.

"The world is going to change because of this war. Drastically to." He was saying. "There has never been a war like this."

"That's what they said about the great war and nothing changed." Ariadne said always willing to argue with him.

"Watch the mud." Robert warned pulling her closer to him. "This war is different. It's on a grander scale."

"Robert?" Ariadne asked as they walked. He turned to her.

"My friend's husband is acting strange. He's not eating or acting like he was before he was captured. I knew him right before he was captured and he wasn't like this. His wife is really worried." She said.

"Shell shock." Robert said. "Happens to the best of our fighting men."

"Is there anything we can do?" She asked.  
>"A lot of men won't admit there is a problem. Are ashamed they have a mental weakness." Robert said steadily.<p>

"It's not... it's not a _mental weakness_." Ariadne whispered making sure no one else on the park trail heard them.

"I never said it was." Robert said. "They _think_ it is."

"What can we do?" She asked. Robert shrugged his shoulders.

"We can wait and see if he comes back to himself. Or what might be better, I have a friend of mine who's a physiotherapist." He said tentatively.

"A head shrink?" She said shaking her head. "No Cobb would never go for that."

"Not a head shrink. He's a therapist. In the same way you see a doctor for your body, you see him for your mind. The Colonel saw very bad things over there. It may have stayed with him." He explained.

Ariadne nodded. She remembered the POW camps. Remembered the haunted looks on their faces. How similar Cobb's face was. She wondered, what did Arthur's face look like right now.

_Like magic, her mind flashed an image of a dead, rotting face._

_It's eyes sunken in. _

_It's mouth pulled back exposing teeth. _

_It's flesh weathered and gray, but unmistakably Arthur._

She closed her eyes tight and felt her world go swimming.

"Ariadne!" Robert was saying when she opened her eyes.

The well groomed gentleman was breathing a sigh of relief as an older lady stood over them.

"Oh! I think she's waking up now." She said. "Poor thing. You better get your wife home now, young man. Out in this cold, and in a family way to!" She said and tutted.

"Thank you." Robert said as he lightly dabbed around Ariadne's eyes with his handkerchief.

She vaguely realized she was laying on the sidewalk. Robert was leaning over her worriedly.

"What...?" She croaked. "What happened?" Her breathing was sharp and painful.

"You fainted." Robert said as he helped her to slowly stand back up. "Just fell backwards. Do you want to go to the hospital?" He asked as she tried to steady herself. Her world still dizzy.

"No." She said sharply. "I... I just want to go home."

Robert hailed her a cab as she rested on a park bench. Her friend helping her in the back like she was an old lady. She suddenly felt old. Her body and her mind felt like they belonged to a woman much older as she tried to calm the rising sense of panic she was feeling.

~ Arthur was a solider. He hadn't set out in life to be one. As a boy, he played with metal army men. But he grew up and went to law school. Playing solider now seemed so childish. Yet here he was, knee deep in mud as he was helping to dislodge a jeep in the pouring rain.

"She's wadded in there." One of the men said after they stripped the jeep of all non essentials to make it lighter. It took an hour to finally free it from the mud pit. Arthur was too exhausted to build a tent. Instead, he chose to sleep in the jeep and watch the stars.

He woke up in the early dawn, the camp was still and too quite. A heavy mist had settled over the field the battalion had camped at, and hid everything from view. Even they sky was clouded over and he couldn't tell if it was dawn or high noon. For an irrational moment, Arthur thought the battalion had left without him. Marched on and left him sleeping.

He was a ways away from the rest of them. Closer to the mud pit they had dug the jeep free from. Why he didn't start the jeep up and drive to the camp, he never could explain. But nature was calling him and he clumsily stumbled out of his seat to go behind a bush.

He walked into the camp as the chill in the air was hitting him. They had been on the march for days now and there were the constant sounds of bombing as the Soviets were pounding on the door of Berlin.

But this morning, everything was calm. Eerily calm and still. Arthur reached the tents where hundreds of men were sleeping peacefully. The mist covering everything in a sleeping haze so thick, he could barely see four feet in front of him. He noticed the sentries were asleep and shook his head.

"Wake up, Privet." He growled at the young man. "Uncle Sam isn't paying you to get your beauty rest."

The youth said nothing and didn't wake. Arthur kicked his shoe.

"Privet?" Arthur asked.  
>The young man's head lulled to the side and it was then that Arthur saw the bright red line across his neck.<p>

The youth had his throat slit while he was sleeping.

Arthur quickly felt for a pulse and couldn't find one. The body was cool but still a little warm, he hadn't been dead for long.

The Major's first instincts were to alert the camp that someone had invaded them. But his more rational mind, which always won out, said to stay low and be quite. The rest of the camp was sleeping. He could hear heavy snores coming from tents.

Arthur took advantage of the fog. It hid him as he moved stealthy from tent to tent. His ears straining to pick up any movement. His eyes trying to penetrate the fog. Finally he saw it. Dark figures in the mist. Moving around on silent feet. The shoulders slumped and bent down. Picking up things. Arthur crept closer to them. They were speaking German in hurried whispers and Arthur had difficulty understanding them because of their accents.

He only caught the words, "hurry... weapons... Americans... get that... hurry."

Whoever they were, they had killed the sentry on duty. A boy not much older then 18 and were trying to steal weapons from them. Arthur readied the handgun he never went without these days. He even slept with it on. Along with his boots, helmet and his cigarettes case tucked in his breast pocket.

Silently, silently, he found himself a good position. He counted five of them. No more, no less. They were hard to see from the fog but they appeared to be working alone.

"We can take a jeep?" One of them asked.

Arthur shook his head at the audacity of it.

In his clear, well practiced German her took aim and said.  
>"Excuse me, those belong to me."<p>

His firing was rapid and on target. The invaders barely had time to stand up before they were cut down by the Major's bullets. The fog swallowing them whole.


	15. Chapter 15

15.

~ The camp around him burst into life at the sound of five gunshots breaking the quite of the morning. Everywhere they was shouting as men sprang from tents and ran wildly around with rifles in hand.

"Were secure!" Arthur shouted waving at the gruff Colonel who appeared out of the mist. He had barley time to put his boots and helmet on before storming out of his bed looking for a fight.

"What the fuck happened, Major?" He barked.

"They murdered our sentry." Arthur said approaching the figures in the mist. Their bodies half hidden. "They slit his throat, and were trying to steal supplies."

There was general uproar as some men went to check the sentry. Confirming he was dead.

"Damn Nazis. They don't know when their beat." The gruff officer said. "Good job, Major. Although in the future, can we wait till after breakfast? I was having the best dream about your wife." He chuckled slapping Arthur on the back.

Arthur hadn't heard a word of it. He had reached the thieves and was looking over them.

"Sir?" He said gravely. "You need to see this."

Children. Not one of them over 16 years old. The youngest had to be only nine. They were dressed in weathered rags to protect them from the cold and their faces looked half starved. Arthur was feeling their pulses and their breath. Hoping to find one breathing.

But he had done his job too well. His shots had been to precise. They were all dead.

"Must have been looking for food. Probably been in survival mode this whole time. Why they killed the watchman." The gruff officer said looking over the dead bodies.

Arthur could no longer stand and sat down in the dewy grass. One of them was a girl with long brown hair, not much older then 14. He couldn't stop looking at the girl who looked like a young version of his wife.

She and the rest of them were just looking to survive. They were not Nazis, they were not the enemy.

"Major." The gruff officer said. "You couldn't have known. With this fog and the privet being killed." He gripped Arthur's shoulder and glared at the other men standing around them.

"You men pack up! Were leaving camp!" he bellowed. The camp moved like the gruff officer was Zeus on the mountain. They moved on and left the bodies behind.

~ "So, what did you think of the movie?" Robert asked.

Ariadne was drinking her hot chocolate and smiling. The memory of Humphrey Bogart in his white dinner jacket, still in her mind.

"People kept telling me how wonderful _Casablanca _was, I'm glad you talked me into going." She admitted.

"I'm glad you liked it." He said politely.

Robert had finally talked her into going to a movie with him. It had been raining out and he didn't like the idea of them walking in the park. She wasn't sure if it was alright to go to the movies with him. Explaining she was a married woman.  
>"It's not a<em> date<em>." He said rolling his eyes. "It's a matinee."

She relented and was glad she did. The romance of the love story, Paris and the threat of war made her head swim remembering Arthur. How he had courted her. Loved her.

"Do you think Ilsa really loved Victor?" She asked. "I mean, she was planing on running away with Rick."

Robert shook his head.

"No, Victor was her husband and a good man. Rick was just a romance she had in Paris. That's what people do when their in Paris. Fall madly in love with some handsome stranger and never see them again. It isn't real." Robert said casually.

His words had bite to them. Ariadne blinked. She had pictured her own romance with Arthur much like Ilsa and Rick.

Robert went on.

"That kind of love isn't really love. It's infatuation. Real love, it takes more time. More work. Anyone can fall in love in Paris, with a war on the way. It's the less romantic parts that really matter." He finished.

"I have to go." Ariadne said her stomach feeling tight.

"What's wrong?" Robert said standing up with her. "Was it something I said?"

"No, I just... I have to go." She said pulling on her scarf and ducking out of the restaurant into the rain.

She narrowly missed being hit by a cab as Robert was shouting at her to come back.

~ "Have a drink, Major." The gruff officer was saying as he poured Arthur a shot of whiskey.

"I don't drink." Arthur said leaning back on his chair. Making it balance on only two legs. His mind had been lost in thought for hours now. The Army's relentless march into Berlin had been chaotic and everything was a mash of confusion, rain, blood and death.

The city was all but leveled. Heavy bombs had blown it to near rubble as the Red Army savagely converged. The past month was a haze of fighting and killing.

Arthur had been wounded, although not severely. A stray metal fragment from a forgotten mine had clipped his arm and hit the skinny Corporal in the head. Killing him instantly.

Arthur tried for what felt like hours to revive him before giving up. His thoughts were on how he first met that Corporal. When he helped him blow up that mine field. It felt so long ago now. The skinny Corporal had stood by him after they were captured and had followed him into battle without question. Now, that trusting young man had died because of some senseless explosion that was not intended for them.

"Today, you drink." The gruff Colonel said. "It's not everyday you have a front row seat to the end of a war. The Russians are saying that Hitler is dead. Shot himself in the head, the pussy." He added downing his drink.

Arthur said nothing and didn't touch his glass. He had stopped shaving over the past few days. He didn't like to look at himself lately in the mirror. He didn't recognize his face anymore.

He felt an uncomfortable itch on his arm where the shrapnel had hit. They had lost their medic a few days before and had almost no medical supplies left. The gruff officer had cleaned and dressed the wound as best he could. His wound was itchy and starting to throb in pain. Arthur ignored it. He welcomed pain now.

"Are you still upset because of what happened with those thieves?" The Colonel asked.

Arthur didn't answer. The gruff officer never calling them children or teenagers. Always '_thieves_'. Made thing easier.  
>"Well don't be." he barked. "You did what you had to do to protect the lives of your unit. I would have done the same." He said. "I want you to know, I've put a letter of commendation in your file. You have preformed above and beyond the call of duty over the past few months, solider. I see another promotion, with a command of your own in your near future."<p>

"That's very kind of you, Sir." Arthur said. "But all I see in my future is going home to my wife and baby. All I want to do is go home, and take care of them."

"We can expect to be debriefed in the next few days." The gruff officer said. "Not much longer now and you can send her a telegram saying your alive and well.

~ Arthur went to sleep that night looking at the weathered photo of Ariadne. How he wished he could go back in time, to not even a year ago now. He was still virtually innocent to the war. At how bad things could be. He could still touch her, and see her in color. Her perfume coming off her. Or maybe that was just the way she smelled naturally. He had taken for granted how easy it was to touch her.

Perhaps she had only been a dream. Perhaps this hell, this was reality.

He woke up sweating. The wound on his arm was blazing hot and painful.

~ Ariadne had taken a long hot bath when she came home. The rain was still pounding relentlessly outside. The hot water warmed her after her walk in the downpour. Her feet numb from the bitter cold. Beth was home and playing Billy Holiday over the radio. The music making their humble little apartment feel very cheery with the cold weather outside.

She had arrived home soaking wet and Beth had sent her strait into the bathtub and brought her a cup of tea.

She drank her tea and tried to relax. What Robert had said was stupid. She never told him how she had met Arthur. Their whirl wind courtship in Paris. How it all happened so fast that they were swept along with the tide of war.

Arthur _did_ love her. It wasn't just some fling in Paris. He had married her, and she was sure Arthur was not the type to do that lightly. He would come home and they would be a family. She and Arthur _were_ like Rick and Ilsa. Only they would be together in the end.

She felt tears well up in her eyes as a black bird perched inside her brain squawked.

"_He's already dead. _

_You know it's true. _

_You feel it's true. _

_He's dead and his body is rotting in the mud. _

_He's rotting in the graveyard of Europe and no one will ever find him. _

_He's gone. He's gone. _

_Like he never existed at all. _

_And all you have is a few trinkets and pictures. _

_That's all. _

_That's all you have of the man you love." _

She ran her hand over her belly. She had felt the baby kicking only when she tried to sleep. It was when she was walking with Robert that he or she took a nap. She could feel a healthy movement under her skin. An life existing within her, and yet separate.

"Your here, little one." She whispered. "That's proof enough he existed. Your proof he loved me. That he loved us."

After a while, the bath water turned cold and she pulled her night gown on. She went to her sad, empty bed in her room. A bassinet ready for the new arrival next to her full sized bed. Another thing she bought in anticipation for her husband to return. She wanted a larger bed for them and she and Beth went and bought a handsome furniture set.

She had been just about to fall asleep when she sensed something was wrong. She felt a sharp, unnatural pain pierce through her and make her wince.

"Beth!" She screamed when she threw back her covers and saw her night clothes were covered in blood.

Her sister-in-law must have been a light sleeper because she arrived in Ariadne's room quickly.  
>"What? What is it?" She asked looking disheveled.<br>"I... I think I'm having a miscarriage!" Ariadne cried.


	16. Chapter 16

16.

~ Arthur woke up in a strange place. He took his time about looking around. Not wanting to let anyone know he was awake. His basic survival skills kicking in from all the months he spent fighting at the front.

He was in a long room. Clean, white hospital beds running together. Crowding the already large room. It was night time and the other patients were all sleeping. There were others, men who were moaning in pain. But the majority of them were making deep sounds of heavy sleep.

'_I'm in a hospital._' Arthur thought looking around him at last. He spotted a nurse and an orderly at a desk but didn't call to them. His arm was throbbing in pain and he looked at it. Half expecting it to be three times it's normal size.

It was normal. Cleanly wrapped in white dressing. Everything about this place was clean and well kept.

"I see were awake." Came a voice. Arthur looked over and saw the chubby nurse with thick glasses coming to him. Her accent was English.

"Where am I?" He asked. His throat was dry and his body felt weak as he tried to sit up.  
>"Your in London." She said pleasantly looking over his arm. She stood and gave him some water. "I must say, we are very glad to see you awake. You have been sleeping so much the past few days we thought you would never come out of it."<p>

"How long have I been here?" He asked trying to sit up again. His arm hurt too much and he collapsed down in the bed again.

"Oh dear, that won't do." She said worriedly. "I'll get you something for the pain, Major." She said going back to the nurses station.

She came back with a shot and told him he had been taken from the front, to London on special orders form some important Colonel.

"You had a very bad infection." The chubby nurse said pleasantly. "Doctor wanted to amputate your arm right their at the field hospital in Berlin, but the Colonel said no."

"Field hospital?" Arthur asked as he could feel the drugs kicking in. "I don't remember that." He said sadly.

"Well, the Doctor here saved your arm and you'll be going home. War is over. Hitler's dead."

Arthur didn't process when she had said.

"My things?" He croaked. "I... my cigarette case... where are my things?" he croaked.  
>"Relax, Major." The chubby nurse said holding up his pack. "Everything is here."<p>

He ignored the pain in his arm and searched though his pack. His things had been thrown into the army green bag hastily, most likely by the gruff Colonel. Arthur's hand alighted on the cold silver cigarette case and her face appeared before him again.

"There you are." He whispered to her, feeling himself calm down.

He closed his eyes and dreamed of Ariadne.

~ "Please." Ariadne whimpered to the doctor when Beth brought her in. "I can't lose this baby."

She could feel his hands exam her. The bleeding had stopped, but the pain was still persistent.

"My husband's been missing in action over five months now. This baby is all I have." She said ready to cry again.  
>"Now, now." The Doctor said wisely. "Calm yourself. Baby isn't going anywhere. Were going to give you some medicine that will stop the contractions and hemorrhaging. You still have a while before he's due... let's keep him in there, what do you say?" He said with a smile.<p>

Ariadne nodded and trusted him.

~ The hospital had never been so full. Not even in the worst days of the bombings. The Matron walked quickly from one crowded ward to the next. There were make shift beds everywhere. Londoners had answered the hospital's call for more beds and brought beds, clean sheets and blankets from their homes. All for the influx of wounded men arriving from the front.

Beds were in the hallway and shoved into every available space. The Matron no longer had time to examine each name that came through. The sheer volume of men coming in, dieing, leaving, coming in, dieing. All of it was just a blur after a while. It was all she could do to stay afloat in a sea of wounded as everyday the work never seemed to end. She was working 18 hour days and had too few nurses to help.

It was a bright and sunny day outside. The beds needed to be changed and the floors cleaned. The easiest way to do this was to get the patients out and get them some fresh air.

"Now, your condition is not that serious, you need to walk and sit outside. The fresh air will do you good." She told them in her efficient manner. Shepherding several wards at once with the help of only a few nurses.

Like a scene for Exodus, they spilled out of the wards and onto the hospital lawns. Hundreds, of them in wheelchairs and canes as they took in the good air.  
>"I'm hurt too much, nurse." One man whined.<p>

"Nonsense." The Matron said helping him to stand. "Why just last winter, I had a tiny little nurse working here with a broken leg and never once did she complain."

The complaining man was the last to leave the large ward and finally, they could clean.

~ Arthur had been roughed out of bed by a bony, bossy nurse who seemed to be queen of the entire hospital. He had groggily obeyed. Not having the strength to argue. He had slept enough at it was already. Not wanting to use a wheelchair, he hobbled out of the hospital.

Arthur had taken with him a battered copy of "The Odyssey" to read outside. He had been surprised to see the books in his pack no doubt put there by the gruff Colonel when he was shipped out by the medics.

He opened the first page to the writing the Colonel had penned in the haste of shipping him out.

_Major,_

_ I hope when you read this, your safe from all this fucking madness. I want you to find your "Penelope" and live a long happy life with her. You deserve it. _

_ My wife died giving birth to my son, and I have always liked to imagine he would have grown into a man as fine as you. Go home, Son. Go home and put this shit war behind you. Raise an army of brave little kids who never know what a war is like._

_ The bastards will be lucky to have such a man as their father. _

_ Your Friend,_

_Colonel Nathaniel Burch_

Arthur felt his eyes swim with tears at the memory of the gruff Colonel. He would be dead if it wasn't for him. Perhaps several times over as things turned out.

He couldn't read the words after a while. Thinking of the Colonel. How he would never see him again. Instead, he looked out over the other men on the lawn. He almost didn't believe his eyes when he saw it.  
>"Eames?" He asked and almost laughed. The Lieutenant looked up from his wheelchair and his face broke into a wide grin.<br>"Major!" Eames said wheeling himself over to him. "How did you get here? Last I heard you were marching into Berlin!"

"Yeah. We made it. Got a bad cut and had to come here." Arthur said as Eames handed him a cigarette and they two of them smoked in silence for a while.

Arthur didn't say anything about the leg that was heavily wrapped on the Lieutenant's body. Finally, Eames was the one to bring it up.  
>"Happened about a month ago. I stepped on a mine. Blew me halfway across the road. I guess I'm lucky it didn't kill me. They say I'll walk again, but not without trouble."<p>

"Has your girl been to see you? The one who works in the ARP?" Arthur asked numbly.

Eames chuckled darkly.

"She... she's been keeping house with someone else for a while now. Didn't like waiting for me to come home." he said. "I think my injury here was the final straw. Said she wanted to make a life with him. Not sure where that leaves me."

"Better off." Arthur said. "Your better off now."

"Says the man who can still walk and has a pretty wife and baby back home." The Lieutenant grumbled.

~ It took a few days before the War Department came to interview Arthur. He answered all of their questions about his capture, reliving ever painful detail. Her told them about the camp, about Little Prick, about his men. How he was rescued and how he had gone with the Colonel to Berlin.

"That should just about do it, Major." One of the bureaucrats said. "Before he died, the Colonel sent a letter of commendation. You'll most likely be promoted."

"The Colonel died?" Arthur asked. The gruff officer had been like a father or older brother to him. He was the man who rescued him from that camp and who had made sure he didn't lose his mind afterward.

"Yes, I'm afraid it was an incident of friendly fire." The bureaucrat said indifferently. "So much confusion in Berlin right now."  
>"Sir, when can I call my wife? She hasn't heard from be in months now and I'm sure she thinks I'm dead." Arthur said shaking off the latest taint of death from this war.<p>

"You can call her now. The hospital here has a bank of phones if I'm not mistaken." The bureaucrat said.

~ Arthur wadded though the crowded halls to the phones. He had been given his pay from the war department and wanted nothing more then to drop dimes in the payphone all day if it meant he could talk to Ariadne.

He finally got a phone after a long wait in line. The militant head nurse telling them they only had ten minuets.

"There are a lot of people waiting to make phone calls." She said over the protests of the wounded.

"That Matron is really something." Eames said with a laugh. "Tell the missus I said hello."

Arthur dialed his mother's house. The maid picked up and he didn't have long to wait till he heard his mother's voice.

"Arthur?" She cried. "Oh my boy! Is it really you?"

"Yes." He said holding back a laugh. "It's me. I'm alright."

"Oh, but I've been so worried about you. That girl told me you were missing and had refused to tell me anything else."

"That girl? Ariadne? Is she there? Put her on the phone." He asked. He could scarcely believe he was about to talk to her again. He tried to remember her voice as he smoothed down his shirt and hair.

"No, Arthur. She left." His mother said.  
>"What? What do you mean? When will she be back?" He asked.<p>

"Son, she's is not coming back." Lydia explained. "She decided to move in with some friend of hers and I haven't heard from her. She's a bit difficult you see."

"Mother, wait. Who did she move in with? Where is she?" He barked feeling his anger and frustration rise.  
>"Arthur, listen to me. I'm not mad you got some girl in trouble. It was war time and you were lonely, I understand you tried to do the honorable thing. But I won't allow you to ruin your life over one mistake." Lydia said.<p>

"Mother." Arthur said sharply.

"She trapped you, Arthur. I understand that. Just come home and we can get an annulment and you can find a nice girl. You can forget this whole thing with her ever happened."

"Mother! Where is my wife?" Arthur shouted into the phone.


	17. Chapter 17

17.

~ Robert visited Ariadne in the hospital. She wasn't sure why she had called him, but she did. She knew he would be waiting for her at their walking trail and might worry about her if she didn't show up.

"I feel like this is all my fault." He said looking at her in her hospital bed. "I upset you."

"No, it's my fault." She said rubbing her hands over her belly. The pain had stopped and the Doctor said he could still hear the baby's heartbeat. She was out of any real danger, she just had to have bed rest until she delivered.

"I just haven't been taking care of myself." She said. "I've been worried all the time. Not been eating right, just being... stupid."

"Like walking around central park in a snow storm?" He teased.

"Yes." She said with a ghost of a smile. "I've just been really depressed." She admitted sadly.

"I know." He told her.

"I think I just need to accept the fact that my husbands gone." She said. "I keep thinking he's going to come back, but I know I'm just fooling myself."

"We can't think like that until we know for sure." He told her. "But if the day comes when we _do_ know for sure, I want you to know... I'll be here." He said.

~ Arthur had to take a few moments to compose himself. His mother had told him his sister Beth and Ariadne had moved out of the family home almost five months ago. That they hadn't told her where they went or told her any other news.

He knew his sister well enough to know she would have taken care of his wife as best she could and most likely, they had moved into a place together. Never, had he imagined his mother to act like this. Her manners had totally changed from the loving parent she had been before. She was hateful, spiteful and angry. She called his beloved wife horrible things and accused her of being worse.

The war had changed her. Changed all of them.

He had heard in the worst way possible that his father had died over a year ago. He had wanted to talk to his father, his mother explaining about him becoming sick from the loss of his sons and dieing of grief.

"What's happened?" Eames asked as Arthur stormed back into his ward.

The Major's face was a violent rage. He had never felt so helpless and angry in his life.  
>"My father's dead. My wife is missing. I have to go home." Arthur told him.<p>

~ "Their _still_ celebrating out there." Beth said as she was sitting beside Ariadne's bed. The cheering and rioting from the mob in Time Square had taken to the streets. The news of victory in Europe was hotly celebrated into the evening. The two women could hear the noise from her hospital room.

"It's not everyday a war ends." Beth added.

"Wish I could see it." Ariadne said longingly. Her bed rest keeping her confined. All she could do was go to the bathroom and back to bed. Her contractions had stopped but she was still afraid she might miscarry at any moment.

Beth brought her dinner before braving the crowds of people celebrating to get back home.

"Can't believe Hitler's dead." Ariadne said.

"Yes." Beth added. "Soon, well know one way or another, if Arthur is alive or not."

"One way or another." Ariadne repeated holding back tears.

"You know, if he has been killed-" Beth started.

"Don't! Don't say it, Beth. Please." Ariadne said. Couldn't she understand that saying a thing was so close to making it real?

"I only mean that he would want you to move on. He would want you to be happy." Beth said. "I know you don't think you can. But someday, you'll find someone again." She said. "I know my brother. He would want those he loved to be happy."

"I don't want to think about that until we know for sure." Ariadne said running a hand over her belly.

"It's been five months. If there was a chance he was alive, don't you think he would have found a way to tell us he was alright?" Beth said. "Don't you think he would have been listed as a POW? War in Europe is over, he should have contacted us by now."

"Beth stop." Ariadne said sharply. She could feel a dull hollowness in her heart. The feel of it breaking.

She looked at the open compact she had asked Beth to bring. Her only comfort now was the memory of Arthur.

That night, the labor pains started again.

~ Things moved quickly over the next few days for Arthur. He was promoted to Lt. Colonel, given another few medals and was granted emergency leave. He was allowed on a special flight to New York with some of the wounded.

He arrived to his boyhood home around evening.

"I don't know why they left." Lydia cried as her son, suddenly a dark and brooding man, demanded to know where his wife was.

"Maybe she met a man!" Lydia cried. "Arthur, you look so thin, stay here. This is your home. Stay home."

"Mother, this was supposed to be my wife's home to. I sent her here because I trusted you. I trusted you to take care of her and our baby." Arthur fumed.

He wished his father was still alive. Wished his brothers were still there. Wished he wasn't so alone in the world.

~ Ariadne's doctor couldn't stop her from going into labor this time.

"No, it's too soon." She cried.  
>"It's alright." The Doctor said. "Baby wants to come now. He wants to join in all the celebrating they are doing in Time Square." He said as she couldn't stop the pain from coming.<br>"Please." She cried. "Please don't let him die."

She realized they were putting a rubber mask over her nose and mouth and she knew no more as she slipped into dreams.

~ The war department was not able to close because of the mass of people pouring into it's offices demanding information about their loved ones. Arthur had to wait in line for four hours to finally be seen by some pimply, 4F clerk.

"My wife, she must have made a change of address." He explained.

"Do you have any idea how many MIA cases I have, Sir?" The youth explained.

Arthur quickly reached over the clerk's desk, pulling him off his feet so they were face to face. The youth almost crying from fear as Arthur held him up by the collar.

"Not _Sir_. It's Lieutenant Colonel. I was in Berlin two weeks ago." Arthur growled.

The youth paled as the other people in the crowded office fell silent and looked at the the heavily decorated, high ranking officer in his dress uniform.

"Now, you go and get my file and tell me what address you have for my wife." Arthur said in his most authoritative tone shoving him back over his desk.

The youth silently obeyed and glanced back at Arthur with large, scared eyes.

~ Cobb had gotten better. He had taken Ariadne's advice and started seeing the therapist. Mal had threatened to leave him if he didn't. He would do anything she wanted, as long as she didn't leave him.

"James, eat everything on your plate." Cobb scolded gently. The former solider had put back most of the weight he had lost and he looked healthier.

"I don't want all of it." James protested.

Cobb sighed.

"Son, there were kids just like you in the war who were starved to death." He said. "Eat everything."

Cobb had become calmer and was finally able to put of of the ghosts that haunted him to rest. Hitler's death didn't hurt either.

He looked up at his beautiful wife and she smiled back at him.

There was a loud, urgent knock on their door and Cobb stood, without his cane, and answered it.

"Arthur." Cobb said in shock. His old friend, the man who saved him from that camp, was standing at his door.

"War department said Ariadne lives here." Arthur said after Cobb hugged him.

"She moved in with Beth." Mal said coming to meet the fabled Arthur. "But she's not there right now."

"Where is she?" Arthur asked. Things were taking too long. Cobb and Mal exchanged worried looks.

"Arthur, she's in the hospital." Cobb said finally.


	18. Chapter 18

18.

~ A sudden down pour had dispersed the crowds from their ruckus celebrating. It was almost ten at night by the time Arthur was running though the streets to the hospital.

Cobb had wanted him to wait and get a cab because of the rain. But the crowds and the weather meant that there were none to be had. With all the police barricades and traffic, is was shorter to go on foot.

Arthur didn't have time to walk. He could feel his pulse racing as he pushed his way past the drunk sailors and girls in low cut dresses still celebrating the news that the war in Europe was over. All Cobb and Mal could tell him was that Ariadne had gone into premature labor and that she was in the hospital under bed rest.

He could feel the heavy rain soaking him through his uniform as, finally, he could see the hospital.

~ Beth was crying.

A tiny little bundle in blue was nested in an incubator. The doctor said he was born a month and a half early and had to be in the hospital until he got bigger.

Beth thought her nephew was beautiful. He was too small that was true, but Arthur had been a tiny baby and he turned out fine. Her nephew had a full head of dark, feathery hair that Beth thought make him look like a monkey. She and Ariadne had talked about names if it were a boy and finally they decided on "Adam" after her's and Arthur's father.

"Arthur would have liked that. He and Dad were always close." Beth had told her.

Beth stood at the viewing window and kept a watch over Adam. The only baby in the incubator and who the nurses were calling "The Victory Baby" because he couldn't wait to celebrate the fall of Hitler.

She was alone by the viewing window when she heard heavy, purposeful footsteps and looked up to see a ghost.

~ Ariadne was half in and out of sleep. She vaguely remembered Beth telling her that her son was born and he would be fine before the drug induced sleep pulled her under again.

"Ariadne?" Came a voice. "Baby, wake up."

She opened her eyes at the sound of the deep, male voice that sounded strangely familiar. She had a vague notion that it was raining outside and that someone was in her room. Standing over her bed.

She first took in the uniform and her mind tried to think if she knew anyone who wore a uniform.

"Ariadne?" Arthur's voice came again.

"Arthur?" She croaked weakly. Her eyes finally adjusting in the darkened room to see her husband. He looked so handsome and heroic just now.  
>"Why are you wet?" She asked seeing that his uniform was soaked.<br>"It's raining outside, sweetheart." He chuckled.

"Oh." Was all she said. The drugs making impossible to focus on anything for long.  
>"Beth said I had the baby. That he's going to be alright." Ariadne said. Her mind still weighted down by the drugs.<p>

"I know, I saw him." Arthur said running a hand over her hair.

"Did he look okay?" She asked. "He was born too soon."

"He's perfect." Arthur said kissing her.  
>"Arthur?" She asked. "Is this real? Is this a dream?"<p>

"It's real." He whispered as she felt her eyelids close.

"Your not dead? I was so worried that you were dead." She said feeling her body float away into sleep again.  
>"No, I'm not dead." He whispered.<br>"Don't... don't leave me. Alright?" She said before falling asleep.

"I'm not going anywhere." He promised.

~ Little hands, little feet, little body and a shock of wild, dark hair. Ariadne had her son tucked in between her and Arthur. The new parents laying on their sides so the three of them could all stay in one narrow hospital bed. They were allowed only an hour with the baby after nursing him. Then a nurse would come and take him back into the incubator.

"I think this bed might be too small." Arthur said readjusting himself as Ariadne held her son's small hand and counted his toes again.  
>"No, it's fine." She whispered.<p>

"Didn't know you had that picture." Arthur whispered nodding to her opened compact on her night stand.  
>"It's from the news article about you rescuing those POW's back in Paris. Remember?" She asked with a soft smile.<p>

"How could I forget?" He said with a a grin. "Not a great picture of me. I look mad."

"Yeah, it's not that great. Thinking of replacing it with Humphrey Bogart." She said casually.

"Oh I don't blame you. All the girls say hes _dreamy_." Arthur said and Ariadne snorted a laugh.

"I carried this picture of us with me." He whispered retrieving his cigarette case. "I liked having my sweetheart to look at."

Ariadne blushed when she saw her own forgotten picture looking back at her.

"Shame you had to come home to your wife." She said sympathetically.

"I know, real shame." He laughed.

She felt her husband's kiss on her then.

"I'm so glad your home." She said. "Why didn't you write? I was so worried."

"I'm sorry. After I was captured, I was sent to Berlin. They wouldn't let anyone contact their loved ones. The War Department..." he sighed.

"Yeah, I know how they are." She said and looked down at her baby.  
>"I wanted to. I really did want to tell you I was alright." He said by means of an apology.<p>

"I know you did. I know you wanted to come home." She sighed. "Do you want to talk... about what happened over there?" She asked.  
>"No." He said curtly. "I want to pretend it was all just a bad dream."<p>

"It wasn't Arthur." Ariadne said. "Cobb, when he came home he wasn't right for a long time. I don't want you to be like that. I want the man I fell in love with back."

"I am the man you fell in love with." He said somberly. "It's just... it may take me awhile to be him again."

She nodded and ran a hand over his cheek. Adam was cooing in her arms.

"He's a fighter huh?" Arthur said wanting to change the subject and looking over his tiny son.

"I'm sorry he was born early." Ariadne said.

"That's not your fault. All the stress my mother put you under." He said. An angry scowl darkening his face.

"I want you to forgive her." She said. The mother in her coming out.

"No. Not after what she did to you. That's not the mother I knew and if I had known she was like that, I never would have sent you there. I would have sent you to your parents or had you stay in London. I just thought... she would love you." He said helplessly.

"Arthur, the poor woman lost her husband and her two sons in just four years. Then her youngest, her baby, sends home some pregnant stranger to live with her? It was too much." Ariadne said. Becoming a mother suddenly made Ariadne more sympathetic to Lydia.

"Your too good." Arthur said kissing her. "I don't deserve you."  
>"I know you don't." She agreed. "I've been cooking a lot. I can't wait to get home with him and cook a hot dinner for you. Get you fat and happy."<p>

"Oh I don't want a Betty Crocker wife in my kitchen." Arthur said running a hand over her arm. "I want a hot naked wife in my bed."

She was laughing and blushing.

"Well, I hope you can find one." She said merrily as Arthur could not stop kissing her. "I also bought you some clothes to wear. I don't want you in uniform all day, Solider."

"What if I don't like them?" He asked nuzzling her ear.

"What's that got to do with anything?" She asked furrowing her brow.

"Hey, be nice." He laughed. "I'm a returning war hero. Be nice to me."

She was giggling as her husband moved in closer to her and their son.

~ Robert Fischer was waiting for Ariadne to arrive in the park. He knew she and the baby, a boy, were getting out of the hospital the day before and she had called him and asked her to met him at their old spot.  
>"Robert?" Came a clear happy voice. Robert turned and saw Ariadne walking to him. She looked happy and healthy. Her cheeks glowing with a light he had never seen before.<p>

"You look great." Robert said walking to meet her. "Motherhood agrees with you."

"Thank you." Ariadne said not meeting his eyes.

"Well, where is he? I was wanting to meet the little one." Robert said surprised she wasn't pushing a stroller.  
>"He's... he's at home. With his father." Ariadne said slowly.<br>Robert was silent for a few seconds.

"Your husband came home." He said gravely.  
>"Yes." She said steadily.<p>

Robert shook his head.  
>"Well... that's um... I mean... that's good news." Robert fumbled and tried to make his face look happy.<p>

"It_ is_ good news." Ariadne repeated.

"Is he... is he alright? I mean, was he wounded?" Robert asked as they walked.

"Yes, but he's fine now. He was in Berlin and on radio silence. Why he couldn't reach me." She said looking at her feet.

"Well... that's good he's alive. Is he alright otherwise? I mean Cobb-" Robert asked.

"He's fine, Robert." Ariadne interrupted him harshly. "He's going to be fine."

"I only ask because I've heard some of these soldiers, they come home from war and their not the same. Their wives pay the price for it." Robert said.

"Arthur is not like that." Ariadne told him.

"_Before_, he wasn't like that _before_." Robert corrected.  
>"Robert, I came to tell you that I can't see you anymore." She said finally. "I really enjoyed having you as a friend. Your help with Cobb, I really appreciate it. But I think you want something more then what I can give you."<p>

"I do." Robert said. "I want you. If your husband ever lays a hand on you in anger, I want you to know it's okay to leave him. You don't have to be with a man who hurts you. You can come to me and I'll help you. I love you."

"Robert." Ariadne said coldly. "Arthur would never and will never hit me. Nothing could make him do that. I love him. We have a family together. I never felt for you anything beyond friendship." She said as Robert shook his head.

"You know it was more then that." he said bitterly.

"No, it wasn't." She said gravely. "I could never feel the same for you as I do for him. He makes me so happy. I love every second I'm with him. It's more then just infatuation. It's real love."

She cried softly at the look of hurt on Roberts face.

"When I'm with him, it feels so right." She explained. Remembering that easy way they had with each other. "It just feels like we were meant to be. Like I never have to question it."  
>"Ariadne." Robert said holding back his own tears.<p>

"You'll find someone. I promise you will." She cried before leaving him alone in their park.


	19. Chapter 19

19.

**France, 1955**

~ Arthur was riding his rebuilt motorcycle slowly over the forgotten roads around the family's weekend house. One of the perks of his job at the American Embassy, he was gifted with a fine country home about an hours drive out of Paris.

The former Army officer was lucky to land such a position with the embassy. His education and war record had impressed all the right people and, with the rebuilding of Europe, there was real work for him to do. His wife, Ariadne had been glad to move to Paris. They both wanted to return to the city they had found each other in.

Arthur drove carefully as the small boy, no older then four, was holding onto the handle bars of the bike. His thin body sitting in front as his father drove them back up the drive and to the barn.

"Daddy, again!" The boy yelled as Arthur easily picked him up and sat him on the ground. No matter how much his mother fed him, he never seemed to gain weight. He had been the same as a child and his youngest son took after him.

Arthur sighed as he saw his always beautiful wife coming to the barn.

"I don't think so, Colonel." Arthur said knowing what was coming.  
>"I <em>know<em> you didn't take my son on that death trap." Ariadne said running her hands over a dish towel.

"We just went around the driveway and back." Arthur said as the skinny little boy hugged his mother.

"Daddy took me on _all_ the dirt trials." The child said happily.

Arthur sighed as Ariadne looked angry.

"Where's your brother?" She asked. "Why don't you play with Adam?"

"No, he's playing solider in the woods." The thin boy said.

"Then go play with Elizabeth. She's inside." Ariadne said running over the boy's feather like hair.

The child groaned and held onto her tighter.

"Nathaniel, I don't care where you go so long as it's not here." Ariadne said sharply.

"Listen to your mother, Colonel." Arthur said using the boy's nickname.

The little boy ran off through the large back garden and into the house to find his older sister.

Ariadne turned to her husband.

"I was careful, I drove slowly the whole time. I swear." Arthur said throwing his hands up in surrender.

"I don't want Nathaniel anywhere near that stupid thing!" She said giving the motorcycle a dirty look. "You know how he looks up to you. I don't want him thinking it's alright to ride it."

"You weren't complaining last night when I took you on a midnight ride." He said saddling off the bike and pulling her reluctantly to her.

She still looked angry.

"As I recall you really enjoyed it. We didn't even make it to the bed. Thank God for the hay loft." He whispered as he could feel his wife blushing hard under his lips.  
>"You stop that." She whispered. Her eyes dancing brightly as her husband held her close. "That thing is a menace." She said as Arthur was kissing her and his hands were roaming down her dress front. Quickly undoing the first few buttons.<p>

"And your mother agrees with me." She added.

Arthur sighed. The only thing that cooled him down when he wanted his wife, was mentioning his mother.

"Oh baby, the thrill is gone." He groaned as she was smiling at him.  
>"Well, she's going to be here this afternoon. Her work with the all the war orphans has kept her so busy. She hasn't seen Nathaniel since his 2nd birthday."<p>

"It's been ten years since the war ended. Are their still war orphans?" Arthur said kissing her neck as she tried, unsuccessfully, to escape.

"I think these days, it's for all orphans of all wars." Ariadne said.

The work Lydia did had started when Ariadne told her about the countless children left in Europe who's parents were killed. Leaving them alone, hungry and homeless. Since then, Lydia had thrown herself full speed into a cause that sent them to school, made sure they were fed and had a decent future. The work had eased some of the coldness that had come over Lydia and she seemed much happier and more fulfilled.

"Also, Beth and Eames are coming in tomorrow and I don't want you showing off your death trap to him." Ariadne added nodding to the bike.

Arthur sighed.  
>"I will never forgive myself for introducing Beth to Eames." Arthur said.<br>"Eames is a good husband and father." Ariadne scolded.  
>"I know he is, and he deserves better then <em>Beth<em>!" Arthur said as Ariadne laughed.  
>"Oh, I think he might keep her." She said as the couple watched Nathaniel race out of the house with one of his sister's dolls. A small, pretty dark haired little girl was running after him yelling.<p>

Arthur laughed and Ariadne gasped as Elizabeth tackled her little brother and snatched back her doll.  
>"That's my girl." Arthur chuckled as he wrapped his arms around Ariadne's mid section.<p>

"I keep trying to get her to act like a lady but it just won't take. This is all _your_ fault." She said to her husband.

Arthur shrugged.

"Well, maybe if this new one's a girl, she'll be the helpless princess you like and not the confident girl I like." he said running a protective hand over the slight swell of their fourth child.

"Are we going to tell Cobb and Mal tonight?" She asked.

Another perk of the country house was living so close to their old friends. It meant the kids had other children to play with and Arthur and Ariadne always had a friend close by.

"I was hoping we could wait till everyone was under one roof to give them the big news." Arthur said as they watched Elizabeth push Nathaniel back down in the grass.  
>"I don't know how big the news is." Ariadne said. "I'm sure Mal thinks I'm a rabbit." Ariadne sighed.<p>

"She's one to talk. How many kids do they have now?" Arthur asked.  
>"Five." Ariadne said.<p>

"It's a baby boom. That's what their calling it back in the states." Arthur said holding her closer. Her back to his chest as they watched their oldest come out of the woods. A tall boy even a ten. He was quite and thoughtful as he helped his younger brother out of the grass and brushed off the dirt. Nathaniel looking up at his big brother adoringly.

"I think it's a good thing." Arthur added as they watched the two brothers. "This world saw too much death and now it's trying to come back."

"Well, were stopping at four." Ariadne said authoritatively.

"Are me now?" Arthur grinned. His voice mocking.

"Yes we _are_." Ariadne said pulling away from him.

"Pick you up for another late night ride, nurse?" Arthur called after her as she walked back to the house. Ariadne turned back to him and nodded.

"Sure thing, Solider." She said.

**~ END ~**

** ~ I'm so very glad that people really liked this story. This was really fun to write and it was one of those stories that wrote itself. I'm glad I kept this story up. **

** I've worked as a nurse with the elderly for almost 10 years now. I've meet very interesting people who I wish were younger because I would have loved to hang out with them. The good thing about it is, I have plenty of stories. **

** Ariadne's story was based on a lady who I took care of. During WW2, she was pregnant and her husband was at war. She told me she was so worried about him she didn't take good care of herself and had to live with her mother-in-law. **

** Arthur and Cobb's story was based on another person I took care of. He was a POW for three years in Germany. He was finally liberated after the war ended. His family had no idea that he was still alive. He was sent to London, and then to New York. His parent's didn't have a phone, so he couldn't call them. He was given less then $2 to get home on, which is about $25 in today's money. He made it home to Texas a few days later. His parents received a telegram from the War Office a few hours before a neighbor brought him home. **

** Arthur was also based on a another very fine gentleman I took care of and if he was 60 years younger, I would have married him. He was very "Arthur like" and was a highly decorated officer in WW2. What I really admired was the fact he loved his wife. She had passed away in the 1980's and he was the kind of man who feel in love with one women and had loved her forever. He kept her picture by his bed. He always dressed very nicely everyday and was very careful with his appearance and was the kind of man the world needs more of. **

** I really loved working with my WW2 vets. They really knew how to treat women well. Total flirts! LOL!**

** The gruff Colonel was based on a woman I work with. She is the kind of foul mouth woman who never has a nice word to say to anyone. Yet, if she finds out someone hurt you or was mean to you, she knew exactly the right thing to say to make you feel better. **

** The Matron was based on another nurse I worked with. I have never worked with a more professional woman in my life. She had no time for small talk or gossip, but she did her work and everyone did theirs. Things actually got done with her around. If she was in a war zone, everyone would live. She did not expect praise or expect her people to adore her. She wasn't looking to be anyone's friend. **

** I pictured Arthur's mother in this story to be Angelica Houston from "50/50".**

** The character Beth was based on myself. Cuz I make Beth look like a real lady. **

** If you like this story, please check out "Bronze Horseman". It's awesomely romantic and inspired these stories. If you like Arthur, you will love Alexander. Also check out "Casablanca". Like "Inception", it's about well dressed, chivalrous men who love their women. **

** ~ ~ ~PLEASE check out this artist who did another A&A picture for the story "Don't lose yourself". The Artists name is Reynaile, and I love this new picture so much I have it as my Avatar and had it on my wallpaper. It's generous!~ ~ ~**


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